


Storm Glass

by Bubblegum_monroe



Category: The Arcana (Visual Novel)
Genre: Other, dont @ me, mermaid au, this is self indulgent and about 93 pages long so sue me, using my apprentice eos for this bc i can
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-11
Updated: 2019-01-11
Packaged: 2019-10-08 03:00:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 44,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17378339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bubblegum_monroe/pseuds/Bubblegum_monroe
Summary: The world moves fast. Events pile up. For Eos, that means living life to the potential she pushes it to. Collecting storms and forcing them into glass baubles for safekeeping.She risks her life for this.She just chose the wrong place to do it.





	Storm Glass

The sea is grey. It reflects the dark clouds above, mother nature slams her hands down on the surface of the water to cast gigantic waves across the ocean and her voice becomes the thunder that accompanies the lightning that streaks across the sky.

In a small boat, hardly fit for this weather, sits a woman donned in a thick cloak who clutches glass bottles, balls, and other various ornaments to her chest. In the distance there is siren song and sharp rocks that could destroy her little dingy. Yet she still sails onward, the oars attached to the side enchanted to row further from the shore march steady onwards. There is danger here in the middle of the storm. The risk of mermaids tipping her boat over and dragging her under is only amplified by the storm and proximity to their accursed coral reefs. 

The woman presses onward regardless, she lowers her hoard of glass items to the floor of the boat. Picking among them for the right one to contain this storm. To hold it and use it for her own needs. There are others among her collection. Storms from many places. Tropical hurricanes and vicious lightning that she'd garnered in the midst of a forest fire. She is a collector of this dangerous weather and that would not ever change. Each storm collected into glass, and put into her enchanted side pouch for safe keeping. To hold them close under unsuspecting eyes. 

Having settled on her container, she lifts an impeccably made glass lotus up towards the dark clouds above her. She struggles to keep her balance as she stands, magic pulses through her with each heaving breath as she wills the storm to bow before her. She wills the clouds to gather and the lightning to strike here, she summons it down and forces it into her glass flower. The water surges around her and the song of the seafolk grow closer. They see easy prey in her and know naught of her actions, of her intent. Her hands begin to shake as the lightning comes down towards her. It strikes the glass and rattles around inside. The force of the strike almost pushed her down onto her ass but she stands firm. Every storm, every danger like this, is a once in a lifetime opportunity and she will not pass a single one up. 

Lightning and clouds surge towards her, the glass lotus takes them all, the storm recedes from the sky and she struggles to hold the weight up. The adrenaline helps but her innate desire to flee grows as she hears not only the song but the sound of merfolk rushing towards her small boat. This is not a vessel designed for speed, it is but a fishing boat she'd rented and now she wishes she'd invested in a proper ship and crew. 

She tries to call the storm down faster, to have her task complete so she can spur the boat onwards with further magic for a chance of escape. But all storms are temperamental, and this one loathes containment as much as she once did and refuses. 

She screams into the sky, out of fury not fear, and with willpower calls the sky down into her lotus. There is but a few seconds after the sky grows blue once again that she believes she has a chance to run. Her knees shaking as she sits back down.

‘ _ I can make it _ ,’ she thinks, ‘ _ It is not too late _ .’ Even as her chest begins to grow tight, body reacting to her panic and the elements.

This peace lasts but only a few seconds before a force hits the boat from beneath and capsizes her. She hits the water, her fingers digging into the hard petals of the flower in her hands. Her empty glass ornaments sink into the water around her. Glass balls, snakes and cats, plants and other carefully crafted glass pieces. Her world sinks deep around her as she watches the approaching merfolk with wide open, stinging, eyes. Their expressions are as vicious as their intentions. 

‘ _ They are from the deep sea, _ ’ she thinks as she watches their mouths open impossibly wide to display rows upon rows of haphazardly grown teeth. Her heart seizes in her chest. Her desire to capture the storms of the world has lead her to the jaws of rabid sea dwelling people and the world has proven she is unable to overcome the trials laid before her.

They grab onto her, webbed fingers digging into her forearms, calves, shoulders and thighs. They drag her downwards faster than she would've sunk, leaving behind her falling items as they head downwards. She struggles, her fear causes her to try and shout or scream but water only fills her mouth and then lungs. She tries to lash out but the grip on her is too tight and it only serves to exhaust her.

Something knocks into her--

No.

Something knocks into the crowding merfolk around her. Their sharp claws carve her skin but release her all the same. She sees her blood spill into the water around her, she tries to cough the water out but more fills her mouth. Her vision is darkening and she sees nothing of this new assailant but flashes of white, gold and purple with an iridescent finish. 

As her eyes close and she succumbs to the fate she has been handed for the first time, her fingers release the glass flower she'd risked this venture to gain. 

The storm inside of it flashes, lightning striking against the inside angrily. Slamming against the glass. 

Arms wrap around her waist, and that is the last thing she thinks of before the world disappears completely.

.

Her name is Eosphorus, of Firent. She is the sickly daughter of an influential and prolific priest who serves his city faithfully and rules over it in the name of his chosen God with a council of others just like him. She was trained in the magical arts since she was but a toddler, and left her city ten years ago in hopes of avoiding fate and it's plans.

She is a mage who not just chases storms, but bends them to her will and captures them. She spends her nights smithing glass ornaments, and her days finding storms to put inside of them. Her life has found fulfillment in this. There is freedom in this, freedom in chasing something untameable and trapping it. In bending the unbendable. 

She has risked her life again and again for this. This time she is sure it is her last. 

She opens her eyes, to soft light and the sound of water lapping against ground. There is dripping, as though she is in a cave yet there is something soft beneath her.

She is alive.

And she is somewhere unknown, and she does not know how she got here.

She can feel the ache and hurt in her lungs and in the deep scratches on her limbs. Yet when she looks there are bandages around the wounds and a soreness in her chest that indicates someone has successfully revived her and cast the water out of her chest. Her vision is blurry at first. But after a moment, maybe two, she blinks it away and looks around her for a hint as to how she has survived and where she is.

But first, she sits up. Jaw clenching to smother any noises indicating pain or discomfort as she pushes herself up. She has lived and will not show weakness now.

Around her are the slightly damp walls of a cave. Stalactites and stalagmites are dotted around, yet the walls are carved with symbols she can half recognise. There is fabric that must have been scavenged from sunken ships hung around to soften the aesthetics of this place and various other belongings litter the ground.

She sits up fully and takes note of the being who sits in the water and plays with the lotus that had gotten her into this mess.

As far as she can tell, the figure is masculine. With bright, white hair and brown skin. They appear to have quite the toned physique and she appreciates it before she gets a closer look. Though they are mostly submerged in water, she can see the gills at their neck and where scales give way to skin. 

There is fear in that moment. She remembers being dragged down, remembers sweet siren song, and she is certain that she is merely being kept for a later meal.

She tries to move, to find an escape and in her movements her hand strikes a small pebble. The sound of rock against rock draws the being’s attention. They clutch the lotus to their chest, unsure of the source before their eyes meet in a moment of very still silence.

The merfolk before her pushes the lotus to the side, a little too rough for her liking and her fear of them is overcome by her fear of the broken lotus.

“ _ Careful _ !” She says, she winces as she instinctively lurches forward. “Don't break it!” 

Almost remorseful the creature before her carefully rearranges the lotus on a naturally worn rock shelf near the water. Keeping it far from the edge.

“What is it?” They ask, before a faint pink settles on their cheeks.

‘I am dreaming,’ Eosphorus thinks as the creatures expression turns into embarrassment, ‘I am dreaming or I am dead. This is too outlandish to be real.’

“Ah, I’m sorry,” They say. As with all merfolk their voice is practically enchanting, she feels slightly more at ease. “Your injuries must be hurting...”    
For all Eos knows about merfolk and other beings of the sea, concern for those who remained on land was not something she observed as common. They were largely independent, and their interactions with humans tended to be on the fatal side. Some species of merfolk rose up from the depths, some as large as mountains, to drag down ships-- sometimes entire fleets. Others used their voices to lure sailors to the water, to drown them beneath the waves for food or for sport. There were smaller species, the size of children or less, who acted like the piranhas they took after. Some were less hostile, but by no means did they go out of their way to interact with humans in any form. Be it to benefit them, or to harm them. 

For this one to be so friendly when she, at least she presumes, has washed up in their home inexplicably is curious. Though, she cannot claim in confidence that this will not become sour or that this is not some trick. She is at a severe disadvantage here. 

He reaches towards her as though to grab her, there is softness in his expression but she recoils regardless. She had but witnessed first hand, barely, how merfolk can act in a frenzy. At first he seems surprised by her reaction, it morphed to a small amount of hurt before his face smoothed over to calm once again. “Hm, I suppose you’re not too eager to get close not, ah, after what happened.” He extends his hand once again, slowly with his palm up. As though she is a frightened animal he seeks to soothe. The idea of that irks her, she is no scared little girl. 

She's a scared woman damn it.

“I won't hurt you,” he says, the volume of his voice is low and that enchanting nature to it dims as he grows quieter. Strategically that would be a bad choice, if he were to truly  _ want  _ to lure her closer it'd be more ideal to increase the effectiveness of the enchantment. He would have to sing.

But he doesn't. She doesn't understand him.

“I mean everyone says that but eventually they always end up punching my shoulder too hard and I bruise so easily,” She's joking but it's just to hide her nervousness. There's civility between them, so she must be courteous in kind to avoid sending him into the same frenzy she'd apparently escaped.

She moves a little bit closer to the edge of the water, one hand grips onto a naturally forming pillar while her other extends towards him. She is trying to seem confident but her hand shakes and quivers. Either that or her blood sugar is suddenly quite low for no reason at all. 

“Eosphorus, that's-- that's my name anyway. Eos is perfectly fine, preferred even. I taste  _ fantastic _ with saffron.” 

‘ _ If he gets any ideas from that, _ ’ she thinks after she says it, ‘ _ I'm going to have a huge argument with whatever god decided to give me the mouth that I have. _ ’ 

Despite her joking suggestion, he laughs at it. His slightly damp hand coming forward to shake her own. She notes that he has an absolutely delightful chuckle. 

“Do you think I'm going to eat you?” He asks, there's what she is sure constitutes as a twinkle in his eye. Something she'd mainly read about in books and expected to look more like the glittering of jewels. Instead, it looks happy. “Well, if I really wanted to, I think I would've by now, hm? Besides I don't think most people tend to resuscitate their meals. Counterintuitive, right?” 

The ache on her sternum makes a lot more sense all of the sudden. 

She flashes back to those last few seconds before she'd passed out in the water. Remembers flashes of colour and the sensation of arms around her waist, pulling her… somewhere.

Pulling her here?

“Excuse me?” She's bewildered, dumbfounded. The only time she's heard of merfolk  _ saving  _ someone was during the brief fad in romance novels that focuses on how  _ exotic  _ they were. Well, at least to an odd group of authors who were quite fascinated with the anatomy of certain more human sized species of merfolk.

Reading one focused on the deep sea mermaids, ones with glowing appendages that seemed more monster than anything, had turned her off that genre. Crime serials were far more interesting anyway.

Better than history books at any rate.

“ _ You  _ saved  _ me _ ? Am I getting that right? I'm not merely severely hallucinating in my last few moments of consciousness? I think I should pinch myself.” She refuses to believe it really. Everyone who spent more than a week near or on the water always ended up seeing the sorry state of merfolk attack survivors, or hearing how entire crews could succumb to but a small group of them. The idea of one saving someone in reality was laughable at best, or met with accusations of madness at worst. Yet, here she sat in some cave with a mermaid claiming that he'd saved her life. From other mermaids no less. Perhaps she'd fallen asleep reading some ridiculously cheesy romance novel she'd forgotten about and was instead dreaming this all up. 

Actually she thinks that might be worse.

“Is it that unbelievable?” He asks, though there's a smile on his face that shows he knows how ridiculous it sounds and that makes her nervous. “I could've hurt you before you woke up if I wanted to.”

“We'll say it's true because I don't want to debate merfolk statistics at the moment,” She leans a bit closer, examining his face. There's something oddly familiar about him. Like perhaps she'd caught a glimpse of someone similar to him from a distance once. She supposes it wasn’t entirely impossible. Mathematically at least. “What would be your motivation then? I doubt you go around saving every woman out in the ocean that's this close to getting eaten.” She holds her hand up, thumb and index a hair’s width apart. 

“Only the pretty ones,” he says. He looks at ease and in that moment, while her cheeks go the faintest pink, does she recognise how casual she is being about this. After hearing countless stories of near escapes from his kind, of how easily they could tear someone limb from limb, how was she so calm? There was nothing relaxing in the slightest about this situation. 

‘ _ I must have hit my head _ ,’ She thinks, ‘ _ I must have a concussion because I am sure I would be panicking right now otherwise. _ ’ 

“Pretty, is it?” 

As she says that, there is the loud sound of wood hitting rock and her attention is quickly brought to the water behind the mermaid. It's her poor little dingy. There's a small chunk taken out of the side, but nothing that would make it impossible to use. Even the oars are still there, laid across the top waiting for her.

“Is that my boat?” She asks, and immediately feels like an idiot for it. Of  _ course  _ it is. “How is it here? The  _ fuck _ ?” 

The mermaid pushes from the shore, and reaches for a a braided length of seaweed that has been attached to the dingy. He pulls it closer, pushing it towards the shore and ties it to a column that rises from the water. 

“I…” He looks embarrassed and she has no idea why, “I thought you might want it, when your wounds healed.” 

She tilts her head slightly, eyes narrowing. ‘When your wounds  _ heal _ ,’ as though he'd expected her to stay that long. Or would force her to. Her questioning of his intentions only increases. 

“Awful kind--” She starts, close to saying something potentially insulting before she thinks better of it, “Awful kind of you. Now what do you want from me?  _ Where _ are we?” She's getting to the real questions now, if she can figure out where he's put her she can guess how close she is in proximity to civilisation. Hopefully they're not too far from a port or fishing town. She'd take anything really. 

He wrings his hands, the more she questions him the more uncomfortable he seems to become, the pinker his cheeks get, and she almost feels bad about it. Almost. She hasn't forgotten about the almost dying thing.

“I, ah, we’re at my… Home, so to speak?” 

She is not sure she could pinpoint that on a map. It is not very helpful.

“Your home? This is a cave. Most people claim merfolk live in underwater palaces you know.” Despite the discomfort he'd clearly been feeling, he laughs and it washes away from him. Once again, delightful laugh.

“I doubt anyone claiming that has actually seen where my people live,” His voice is teasing and he relaxes. He leans against where the water meets the shore and rests his cheek in the palm of a hand. His tail floats to the surface of the water behind him. It is stunning, really. The way the fins attached fan out and catch what little light there is in the cave is almost mesmerizing. 

He has come up to her thighs in this movement, she notices, and yet her mind is not necessarily constantly screaming at her to scramble back. Not yet. 

In this position she's able to get a better look at his face, a detailed look. 

He has vibrant purple eyes, splotches of pink in them. His eyes are framed by long lashes that she's envious of in a heartbeat. Eosphorus is at a loss for words for a few seconds.

There is an odd twisting in her stomach, she puts it down to adrenaline.

“Do you all live in dim caves then?” She finds herself leaning closer to him, still clutching the pillar incase he tries to drag her under the water, but oddly relaxed.

“It's free real estate,” He is smiling, and she doesn't know how long he's been smiling for. It is a nice smile.

“Well, you could try getting some l--” She leans further forward and a sharp pain goes through her head, she hisses through her teeth. Closing her eyes as a wave of severe dizziness goes through her. Perhaps she had hit her head at some stage. 

“Are you alright?  _ Hey _ , open your eyes!” 

That is the last thing she hears before everything falls away to oblivion. She is vaguely aware of an arm holding her up and a hand at her cheek before she passes out once again.

.

It is over a period of two weeks that she stays in that cave. Her injuries apparently a little more serious than some scratching, though she longs to return to her own people. To plants, and buildings, and, hell, even to the sight of  _ temples _ , she is unsure she could get herself there if she tried.

So she stays.

Her suspicion remains for the first few days, but being continuously uneaten when waking up tends to provide evidence towards the ‘Not going to eat you’ stance the mermaid has taken.

His name is Asra, she learns. He has an albino eel that follows him around, and collects interesting things. He is fascinated with magic, and that is what had attracted him to her boat the first time.

Because the night of that incident had not been her first time on those waters, or his first time seeing her. Storms had always been prevalent in the area, and the sudden decrease in them had gotten him curious. First he'd watched her capture them standing thigh deep in water on the beach. Hiding in between rocks and just above the surface of the water. He watched her stand firm as each one resisted and lost to her in a game of willpower. If he caught her going out to sea he would follow her little dingy out and watch her enchant the oars and force it to speed over the surf towards the heart of each storm.

He never got to see up close what she held the storms in, and so once she was sure he was safe, she told him of her glass smithing and how she pulled the storms into the glass to capture them. He held the glass pieces that had survived the mermaid frenzy encounter and stared wide eyed as lightning struck the inside of the glass and sent tiny shocks of electricity through his fingers. She would laugh at his wonder and sit beside him in the water to show him small displays of magic when she had the energy for it.    
She wonders if his story is the truth throughout it all.

Though he had not seen magic like hers before, that did not mean he had not seen magic.

The merfolk had their own method of twisting magic for their own ends, of working with the currants and water around them. They communed with the sea creatures around them, their words and song naturally enchanted to make them maddening and alluring. In truth, the merfolk had magic weaved into their very being and it was beautiful. Magic interpreted to their needs to the point it was just as simple as breathing. 

“What is this?” Asra asks as he holds up the lotus that had lead her to this situation as she changed the bandages on one of her legs. He twisted it this way and that, oddly fascinated with it.

“It's glass, you know that, captures storms and all that jazz.” She's not really paying too much attention to the conversation. She tries not to anyway. The more she stays here, the more they speak, the more she wants to stay. She isn't sure if it's the magic in his voice or her own pure desire, but she isn't eager to find out. 

“Uh, no that's not what I meant, what, ah how do I say this, what item did you make this look like? What is it?” 

Of course, he would never have of seen a majority of the plants outside of the sea. Outside of this part of it anyway. She almost feels bad for her flippant answer.

“Oh, it's a lotus flower. A… friend gave one to me before I left for the port town. I figured it was as good of a thing to make as any, they're beautiful flowers.” The city she'd been in before she left for somewhere closer to the sea had been beautiful in its own right. The people colourful in attire and friendly, the architecture was gorgeous. There was little to dislike about it. The best part was the one person she truly felt an effortless connection with, the city’s own countess. Nadia.

At first she'd merely offered her services as a means to gain access to certain things, but when talking with the countess on a personal level she had felt so welcoming and so warm. It'd been impossible not to feel good about herself and feel focused on around her.

This lotus, the one Eos made, she'd intended to send to her. A memento. Though she wrote her often, she felt she deserved a gift. 

She pauses in her wrapping. She was supposed to send a letter to Nadia days ago, she'd put it off to prepare for the storm, but now it'd been so long since the last one. There's a stab in her stomach, she can only hope Nadia had not been worried.

She’d told Asra of the city before, and the place she’d been before that, the one before that, and so on in an unending cycle of comings and goings. Eos did not stay in the one place for long, there was always something new to catch, something old and boring to leave behind. Friends to keep in contact with, or to drift away from.    
She’d said to him, it was the way of things for her. Home was always wherever she was, and she had not held it in permanency since she’d left her family home at a young age with her brother. Of course, he was now out of the picture as well.   
Eos would like to claim that her life held no patterns, but like the storms she chased there were always reliable constants and repeated offenses.    
The look on his face after she’d told him, in her matter of fact way, had almost looked sad.   
Even pitying.

“It's beautiful,” He says, she doesn't see it but he isn’t looking at the lotus. He’s looking at her.

He puts the glass lotus down, away from the water, and pulls himself onto the shore next to her. His tail still dips into the water, mostly submerged. He helps her finish up the bandages, tying them carefully. His touch lingers a little longer than necessary, but she pretends not to notice. 

“They’re healing nicely,” He nods in approval at the bandages, just sitting by her side now and watching the water. “You… Could probably head home, if you felt up to it. If you wanted.” She could’ve left a day or two ago really. She’d stayed. Precaution, she’d thought of it, to ensure she was ready to sail back.    
She should leave, she says as much. 

“I should, there are people who probably think I died at sea during the storm. It’ll be funny to see the looks on their faces when I get back.” She surprisingly enjoyed it here, with Asra as her company. Yet she missed people, missed talking and walking around in crowds. It could be lonely here.   
Not to mention, she missed her dumb pet, Sitan. He was independent, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t be angry when she got back.    
They’re both quiet. Eos cannot entirely trust Asra, she knows that in the back of her mind that there’s always the potential of danger because that is just how things  _ are _ . But she won’t deny that she’ll miss him. He was interesting, nice for a mermaid. 

“I’ll have to leave tomorrow,” She says carefully, playing with the hem of her shirt, “We have the rest of the day.” He nods at her words, leaning backwards until he was laying on the padded ground. She watches him from the corner of her eye. Once again, she cannot help but note that he is quite toned, but mostly she is interested in his tail. Where the human aspects of his anatomy give way to the sea life he resembled. There was so little to be found on merfolk anatomy in libraries, not that there weren’t autopsies and reports written. They just weren’t accessible to the general public-- leading to beliefs such as the medicinal benefits of little mermaid guppy tails and how their hair could attract a lover if tied around one’s wrist for a week. 

But yes, she was quite interested in his anatomy. What little she’d read on the anatomy had been… While enlightening and in some form of depth, she was sure was quite inaccurate. Slits? Organs extending from them? They were nowhere near on the level of her being able to ask about it comfortably, but she was still curious about it.    
Her cheeks went warm as she thought about it. She looks away, fiddling with something or other that’d been salvaged from her dingy. 

The quiet continued on, it wasn’t a comfortable sort either and it was certainly unusual. More brooding than anything, sourced directly from the merfolk beside her. She took in a deep breath, her tongue running over her lips as she thought of what to say. Would he be lonely with her gone? He’d scarcely really left the cave since she’d woken up proper. Perhaps that added to his sudden quiet.

“You know, there’s plenty of thunderstorms around here. Probably won’t be moving on for a while, I could show you up close how I catch them. Once I’m out on the water again.” But a few days ago, Eos would think herself mad for offering such a chance to a mermaid. To allow herself to get close physically with one, and allow them the ability to overpower and drown her was foolishness. She was being a  _ fool _ , yet she could feel no panic inside of her chest. She was confident in her choice.

 

She was comfortable with him.

He doesn’t say anything right away, but she feels the presence of him getting closer. Shoulder’s almost bumping together before he nods with a smile.

“I think I might like that.” 

“Good.”

.

The next morning is strange. The air seems still, stagnant. She is used to leaving places behind, people behind. She is methodical as she rearranges her things into her impossibly deep for its size pouch and looks over her bandages for the oncoming journey back to the town she’d settled into. She almost feels as though she is stalling. 

Asra is helping her too. He puts perfect seashells into her pouch, ones with gold and pearls in and inlaid onto them. He puts in jewellery she assumes could only be scavenged from sunken ships. His hand or arm might graze her shoulder or her hip as he pulls and pushes himself onto and off of the the cave floor and water. She feels the touch linger long after he has gone, like a phantom. 

“You'll have to hold on tight,” He says when they are prepared and Eos is getting into the small boat, “I'll try to be fast but you can't let go.” 

“I know,” She replies, untying the braided seaweed rope that'd kept the boat moored. She is excited to go home, but at the same time a tad melancholy. She has never had difficulty leaving places before and the sensation is odd to her. “I trust you,” She says a little too late as he ducks beneath the water. His hands grip onto the rope he'd made, ready to pull her and the boat through the water and towards the surface in a large dash. He nods at her and when she nods in return, her hands gripping onto the sides, he pulls the boat under.

There is a small rush of fear when she is submerged but she swallows it down and tucks herself down low. Asra pulls her through the water at an almost alarmingly fast pace, his body cutting through the water as though it is nothing. His species had been adapting to it for centuries at least.

There are small shoals of mermaids that they barge through. Hardly threats, the largest was barely the size of her forearm and they seemed a little too spooked by the pair to even think about playing tricks. 

If she had the air to breathe, she might call out in excitement and show how much she loved it when adrenaline pumped through her in situations like this. Where speed and reckless abandon that she chose were the catalyst. 

Her chest begins to hurt from holding in her breath a few seconds before they break the surface of the waves. She heaves in new and fresh air for the first time in a while as Asra tilts the boat to let out excess water. Her hair, wet and waterlogged, sticks to her head and body and she is unimaginably cold but she is  _ alive  _ and so close to being  _ home _ . 

She laughs.

Hard and loud, her body shakes with chuckles and guffaws. She clutches her shoulders and lowers her head, she snorts and cackles. She is so glad to be alive and it is so hard to believe. 

Asra leans against the side of her boat, arms over the edge and he watches her with a grin. Maybe he understands maybe he doesn't, but she is happy and that's what he likes. 

When her laughter mostly calms down, and before she can think of it, she wraps her arms around him. His head can only really come up to her chest, inadvertently squashing his head to her breasts but she doesn't care. She is alive thanks to him. She is  _ alive _ . 

“Thank you,” She says, when she lets him go. He has proven that she can trust him, one merfolk out of countless others has touched her heart. She doesn't know which of her parent's Gods sent him to her but she knows she is grateful. “I could never forget this, I will never forget you.” She lets him go as she clears her throat, running a hand over her hair to try and move through the sudden surge of  _ something _ .

“You had better head to shore, they're probably missing you.”

And indeed they had. There had been a ship passing somewhere in the distance that witnessed her taking the storm and the damages that occurred after. They’d boxed up her belongings in crates, intending to send them to Vesuvia at her last known address the next week. To see her come back alive was a shock for the people she’d found herself surrounded by. 

She’d spent the next day unpacking her things. The intention of sending her things to someone, to somewhere, had almost been touching. Inconvenient now she was back, but almost touching. It distracted her, at least, from the purple eyed mermaid who had saved her life and been her companion for all that time.    
She wanted to see him again, she knew that much. He’d been refreshing to talk to, talking about magical theory in such an in depth way and  _ learning  _ of magic that no human had ever been able to before was invigorating. Magic had been such an important aspect of her life since she’d separated from her parents, to  _ share  _ that with with someone was… It was nice. To have new perspectives on magic was extremely beneficial as well. She couldn’t wait to take it on and see how her magic would react or how it could be improved. 

It seems that the experience, though it’d been sour at one stage, had largely helped her. 

She might be more inclined to a brighter venue, but she wouldn’t mind spending some more time with him.

The thought occurs to her just as she is finishing reestablishing her space in the small cabin she’s rented. Almost immediately she is shocked and angry at herself. One encounter should be enough for her, who knew how quickly the opinions of merfolk could change? Yes, she’d survived that meeting, but who says she would survive the next? Anyone who knew anyone that’d encountered merfolk, or had been by the sea long enough, knew that they were vicious and incredibly hard to defend against. It’d be foolhardy to try and meet with him again. Not to mention the potential of her coming across other merfolk instead…

Yet she had said she’d go out on the water again. That she’d show him how she captured storms. She’d promised.

Eos couldn’t go back on that, she didn’t want to. 

She sits back onto her bed, head in her hands. This was a ridiculous situation for her, there was really no way out that she could take in good faith. 

“I have to do something,” She muttered to herself, playing with her-- thankfully now dry and softened with magic after it’s abominable treatment at the hands of salt water-- hair. If anything what she really needed right now was a drink, or something to eat. Eating hardtack was never enjoyable after all. Even with the addition of normally quite expensive seafood. 

“I’ll go down to the local bar, grab anything. Besides, it’ll be good to be around people again.”

She’s quick to prepare herself, slipping her coin purse into her pocket, a knife in a boot and a small glass marble tucked away into her bra for emergencies. It wasn’t as though she couldn’t use magic offensively on the fly, it was just cooler to use an actual object. Lead to both an over and underestimation too. 

Before she leaves, she looks over the gifts she received from Asra. Golden shells, strings of pearls, jewel encrusted items. Glass smoothed over by the current of water, beautiful things. 

She picks up one of the gifts, a necklace. The chain is silver, with a single pendant to adorn it. It is a locket, heart shaped with beautifully intricate engravings. Small diamonds and amethysts are dotted about the carvings. She’d tried to open it when he handed it to her to be put in her pouch, but it remained firmly shut. Before she can think about it too much, she slips the chain over her head and around her neck. Then she heads for the door, tucking the pendant under her shirt on the way.

The air is cool with only a small breeze to keep it moving. Perhaps it is fortunate that the weather is calm, else she might’ve gone out to the ocean already and gotten herself into trouble. 

Gravel crunched under her feet, the only sounds at the time besides seafowl and the ocean. Salt and brine prevailed as the more overwhelming scent here. It was always so. The sea always smelled the same no matter where you went, and the people were reliably the same too. Fishermen roughened by the sea and it’s monsters, children who ran around acting out stories their parents told them, merchants. 

There was always a bar. Always a little dingey, always serving something warm to eat and something strong to drink. This particular town seemed to have some sort of trading agreement, or perhaps an overabundance of wildlife, and always had something slow roasted in the bar to be served to those with the money to pay for it.    
With Eos’ trade, she definitely had the money for it. 

She spared a look towards the ocean when she reached the bar’s door. Almost expecting to see a familiar white haired figure out in the water.    
It was empty, so she twisted the door knob and headed inside. When she did the warmth hit her, and it was then she realised how much she’d missed heat the past two weeks. The hearth was clearly well kept today. She hurried inside, the door firmly kicked shut behind her.   
Nothing had changed since she’d been here last, and thank god it hadn’t. That’d surely mean something dramatic happened, she couldn’t handle more drama.

“Here she is, mysterious survivor woman of the hour!” There is a crew of people sitting by the bar, or otherwise scattered about the buildings various tables. All similarly dressed, sailors for sure but not local ones. The one who had called to her, she could tell, was obnoxiously tall. Red haired, an eyepatch. She might joke about them being a pirate, if she were sure they weren’t one. 

“Is that what I’m called now? I ought introduce myself as such then,” she says in reply, expecting it to end there so that she could merely have her meal and ease her way back into the town’s flow of life. Instead the man pulls out a chair, indicating for her to sit nearby.    
Perhaps he wants to hear more of this mermaid incident.   
If only she had something not completely  _ outlandish  _ to tell people.

“Take a seat, have a drink-- they’re awful. Had five.” He grins wide, full of drunken mirth.

Unwilling to seem impolite Eos take the seat, asking for a port from the bartender to tide her over until she could get to whatever had been roasting tonight. 

“You’re having the wrong stuff then, no need to have a good time while risking your tastebuds,” She lifts the port glass to her lips, sipping on it and thinks of how ridiculous port glasses look. They’re such funny looking pieces. “Might as well enjoy yourself if you’re going to lose your head, yeah?”    
He chuckles in response, continuing to gulp down whatever disgusting concoction had been mixed up for him. 

“So, how does defying death feel? I must admit, seeing that swarm head towards you from our ship was a terrifying sight. Let alone seeing you get dragged under, yet you seemed to manage alright!” 

She stiffens, sipping a bit more on the port. What could she even say? He’d clearly seen her going under at the least, what sort of easy lie could she concoct? Nothing too in depth, being vague would be her ally here.   
She didn’t want anyone looking for Asra. She didn’t want anyone to hurt him. 

“It feels like I need a couple more glasses of this and a warm meal, something that’s about ninety five percent meat. I’m starving really.” She casts a meaningful look at the bartender, sliding over a small handful of coins to pay for her drinks tonight and her meal. She had a feeling she might be talking to this sailor for a while. “What can I call you?”

“Captain Devorak, at your mildly drunk service, Julian works just as well if that suits your fancy. So I’ve got to know,” He adjusts himself in his seat, turning more towards her, “How did you survive that attack, let alone for, what, two weeks on your own? I’ve got to admit I’m quite impressed by it. You might serve as a good example for all the men I’ve got with me who’re scared shitless by the creatures.” 

She sighs softly, looking around for an escape and finding none. She reaches into her bra, and pulls out the marble she’d stored inside. The air around it crackles with electricity and heat at her touch. A small scene of a storm rolls around inside of it.

“I’m a magician,” She says with a dull and tired tone, she drops it back into her bra and pats the space gently. “I survived because I was well prepared for such events, through innate ability and through pieces like that marble. Unless your crew consists of multiple magicians… I would stick with gunfire and trying not to draw their attention. Even I didn’t escape uninjured.” None of it necessarily untrue. Asra knew of her because of her magic and saved her, and she had been hurt. It aches even now.

“You use magic?” He asks, and when she looks at him all she sees is nervousness. Not something she hasn’t seen before when telling someone that fact. People either view magic as something extraordinary, as something to watch out for, or as something that was simple like hair being brown or blonde. Part of life.    
Perhaps she could use his nervousness to stall the questions. 

“That’s why I was out there, surely you noticed right? The storm gathering and then disappearing? How else would I survive an attack like that? Gods don’t work miracles, I do.” By now her meal has been delivered to her, as expected it was mostly meat and her glass is soon refilled. She forks some of the softened meat into her mouth, nodding in approval before picking up the plate and glass. Intending to move somewhere more private.

“It’s been a delight, Julian, but I’ve the most splitting headache coming on and I’d rather it be because of the alcohol in the morning than because I’m straining myself. Safe travels.” She doesn’t stay to listen for his reply, be there one, instead moving deeper into the bar to find a quiet corner to enjoy her evening. 

She eats, and she drinks, and she thinks of her merfolk companion. The more she drinks, the more she wants to look out over the current patrons of the bar and see a shock of white hair or catch a glimpse of purple eyes. It is impossible but in some way she is eternally fascinated.    
Paranoia accompanies it, of course. Could this be mer enchantment? Their voices are practically magic itself and they talked extensively. Yet, regardless it is a feeling that is there and settling into her chest. It is not a compulsion, not an overwhelming desire. It is a faint want. There, but nothing stronger than her own will. 

The crew of the captain still hang around the bar by the time she’s eaten and drank her full. They are merry, singing and pushing at each other with vigor. A lively bunch, enthusiastic.   
It gives her a headache honestly. 

She doesn’t know  _ when  _ she realises it, but she does recognise it. The slight charge in the air, the hair on her forearm stands on end for a few seconds before calming again. In the distance, the waves hit the shore a bit harder. These details should hardly be noticeable, they are so miniscule really.    
Eosphorus has been at this a long time however.   
There will be a new storm within but a few days, and she will be there to capture it.

But first, she needs a container for it. She needs to make a new piece of glass.

She stands up from her tucked away table, puts a few coins on it as a gift and leaves the bar. Welcoming once again the smell of brine and salt water. The cold cuts through her clothes, but the port keeps her chest warm and her head a little bit fuzzy. Rather than head for home, for her bed, she walks towards the beach.

She has sand, she has the materials she needs to make a new piece of glass. But this one has to be special, it needs a piece of individuality. 

The air almost grows colder the closer she gets to the water, she brings her hands up to rub at her upper arms and shoulders. Trying to make heat out of friction. For the most part it works. Electricity skips over the surface of her body and warms her while she keeps her hands moving. It’s quite a sight really. To see this woman walking along the beach, looking as though she is a storm herself. She mirrors that which she captures. Encompasses it.

The sand is surprisingly soft, fine. She knows there is an area here, has been told of it, with a beautiful black sand. If it is as fine as this, she will be quite fortunate indeed.    
The water laps at her ankles when she walks. There are a few animals around. Seagulls come together on the sand and fly off when she approaches, there’s a small wildcat that watches her from the top of a wrecked fishing boat that had been abandoned. The occasional glint of snake hide as they slither into hiding.

By all means, she should be  _ terrified _ . She should be wary of the risk that the merfolk pose, and should just move on to a new place so that she can be safe from it all.    
She sighs to herself, head bowing low. 

Hyperion would laugh at her if he knew what was happening. He would mock and tease her mercilessly and ask her if she’d fallen for such an unusual creature. He would say that she ‘ _ has such unusual tastes in men’ _ that she ‘ _ must enjoy smelling of fish. _ ’    
At that thought, she cautiously took a whiff of herself.    
She smelled fine. 

But yes, Hyperion would have a riot with this. He would laugh endlessly and be so adamant about meeting this mysterious mer.    
Then he would likely hurt Asra, because that is what Hyperion did. Because merfolk are dangerous, and regardless of how  _ kind  _ Asra had been that is what happens to dangerous things.

She supposed it was fortunate she was not with Hyperion right now. Her brother was an ass, headstrong.    
She was too temperamental for him eventually, for either of them. 

She doesn’t notice when the white sand gives way to grey, then black. She sees it eventually though, when she turns a corner to see rocky crags before her. Shielded from the sight of any in the Portsoy, covered in sharp rocks and black sand.    
It wasn’t even just that.

When lightning strikes sand, occasionally a reaction occurs that melts and merges the sand with that around it. Becoming a substance known as fulgurite, it’s hardly ever clear. But it can be beautiful, forming fantastic shapes and mimicking the lightning that formed it. She used to collect it when she was younger, before she got into glass smithing. Then she made her own.   
But here, the formations of it, the shape  _ was  _ fulgurite. She recognised that. 

It was just all black. Like a void seeping into the fabric of reality. It was darker than anything she’d ever seen and she’s entirely convinced magic is to play here. She can sense it. It weighs the air down, makes it thicker and harder to inhale. Her heart thumps against her chest. Is it innate, or did someone come here to make all of this? 

She wanders deeper in, ducking under huge formations of the sea glass and admiring it up close. ‘ _ This is beautiful, _ ’ she thinks as she runs her fingers over a small formation of it, ‘ _ All of this but a few meters from the town, and I never even knew _ .’   
She turns around in a circle, looking at all the formations around her. There’s almost a pattern to them, almost as though they are coming together. Forming something.   
Like a birdcage. 

She laughs off the the idea, and before she forgets her purpose here, she kneels down to scoop some of the black sand into her impossibly deep pouch.    
Of course, by ‘some’ there is quite a lot. A sizeable amount at the least. 

She dusts the sand off of her pants, a few of the grains sticking to her fingers. There’s something a bit off about it all, beyond what she’s already observed, but before she can go to the center of the phenomenon to investigate, there is a noise at the shore. The sound of rocks scraping and tumbling into the water, of scales against sand. Movement. 

She turns around, hands already dripping with lightning before she sees the source of it all.

She’d aimed to see him when the next storm hit, but even she can’t be upset at seeing him again now. White hair dry despite his previous journey through the water, purple eyes wide with  _ something _ . He is as beautiful here as he had been in the cave and her heart soars.    
Well, less soars and more picks up the pace. Banging metaphorical fists at the insides of her ribcage. Her stomach does backflips and somersaults inside of her. 

The lightning falls from her hands, doing naught but lighting up the sand beneath her feet before fading to nothing. She finds herself half running towards the shore in no time, dropping to her knees in the surf before Asra. There is privacy here, but she knows anyone could also come here if they wanted to at any time. She doesn’t care, for some inexplicable reason she is  _ happy _ to see Asra. Despite all of the  _ should _ ’s that she would be expected to feel, after all that time spent recovering with him in that cave it has all gone out the window. 

“I- I didn’t expect to see you here,” She starts, her hands nervously rising to twist and twirl her hair around her fingers. The light behind him as the sun sets casts a halo through his white hair. She tries not to react as he moves, repositions himself, one hand beside her knees he is leaning closer than necessary and she hopes he does not notice. “I’m glad I did though, it’s good to see you again.”

She is acting like a  _ schoolgirl _ , she can sense that. Hyperion’s voice in the back of her mind, the echo of her brother, calls out to her such. That she is making a fool of herself. 

“I didn’t expect to see you here either,” He says quietly, there is a light in his eyes. The fin at the end of his tail curls and unfurls, something she had noted as something he did when nervous. His free hand comes up, takes one of her own. His fingers are long, and curl around her hand. He feels warmer than she expected him too. Cool to the touch, yes, but not freezing. He would be perfect in warmer areas. “Are you alright? Are your wounds okay?”

“They’re fine, they’re healing. I’ll see a local doctor about them later if there’s troubles,” If anything the abundance of salt water had completely destroyed any thought of infection in them. She needed only keep them clean to keep it that way. “What are you doing here?”

He clears his throat at her question, there’s a pink forming in his cheeks. His thumb rubs small circles over her skin, and she finds herself unable to look away from him and leaning ever closer. When she notices it, she at first suspects it is that enchanted voice. But he has scarcely said a few words just over a whisper, if there was any intent to lure her at that volume it would be too weak to take effect. Not to mention, she’s  _ questioning  _ it, something that wouldn’t be allowed under a siren’s spell.

Her attraction to him is all her and it is happening so suddenly. She’s almost frightened of it.

Is it a god that has intended this for her? It is the only explanation she can come up with that would explain this without Asra himself being the source. She has never come to feel this towards someone so quickly. 

Else she is unable to simply keep it hidden away this time.    
Maybe she doesn’t even want to. 

“I was, ah, searching for someone and I thought she’d hidden away near here. When I saw you…” He clears his throat again and squeezes her hand. “I thought I should make sure you were alright, you were swaying a little.” 

She’d been swaying? Perhaps she’d had more to drink than she’d thought.    
Now that she thinks of it, maybe it is the alcohol that is lowering her inhibitions and allowing her to think of the literally entirely naked mermaid in front of her as attractive.    
She shouldn’t look down, she’ll blush. 

“I,” She lips her lips, blinking quickly to dislodge a grain of sand in her eye before continuing, “I just had something to drink after I settled into my cabin again. I’m fine.” His concern is touching however. “Who are you searching for?” She asks, in hopes of diverting the conversation elsewhere. 

He smiles at her question, letting go of his hand to spread his arms out. She’s confused, until he starts explaining who he’s looking for. 

“A snake, white and about this long. She doesn’t typically go near the shore but I can’t find her anywhere else.” 

“A snake? Hm,” She leans back, she saw snakes on the way to this beach, but she can’t quite remember if any were white. “I’ll help you look for her, come on. I’ll be able to get where you can’t.” She gets up off of her knees, dusting the sand off once she’s standing up. “Which way were you going before you stopped here?” 

“You don’t have to--”

“Which way?” 

They go along the rest of the length of the beach after that, she walks waist deep in the water and looks over the shore and he swims beneath the water to look for this white snake. The sand fades from black to white once again, and they’re well out of the sight of the fishing town by now. 

They come upon the scene of an old, old shipwreck before they spot the snake. An old ship must have of thrown against the rocks by a strong storm for it to be this badly damaged. Beside the wreck, stands a tall hollow tree. It’s branches extending over the water, almost as though it were aiming to touch the horizon itself. 

“I don’t see her, perhaps she isn’t here at all,” Eos says to Asra, casting another glance over the shoreline. They’d been fairly unsuccessful so far, with no signs as to the snake they were looking for. “Perhaps she’s returned home, and just missed you?” 

“Maybe,” Asra says, rising to the surface. Concern and worry colours his tone. A sigh comes from his chest before his face morphs into one of shock and fear as the call of an eagle sounds out and a harsh hiss falls through the air. Eos whips around, looking for the source and her eyes are drawn up to the tree they’d passed by just moments before. They hadn’t looked up at the branches. 

On one of them, a white snake with a diamond pattern along the back dangles dangerously from a branch. Furious hissing sounds from the snake as it struggles to get back up onto the branch, the source for it’s predicament comes swooping from above. Talons extended to attempt to grab the snake. That bird would decimate Asra’s snake.    
He’d be quite upset she imagines.

Asra lurches forward as though he could reach the snake, but Eos moves faster. She knows in a moment that their quarry is about to be taken for a meal if she doesn’t get there first.

She’s the only one out of the two of them who can. 

She sprints towards the shipwreck beside the tree. Jumping when she’s close enough and uses a broken porthole as a hand hole to propel herself upwards. From there she grabs onto the decking where the railing has fallen away. 

The eagle calls again, having missed the snake by mere inches it’s momentum causes it to fall just behind her before it swings around to try again. She pulls herself up onto the deck and runs towards the tree, she can see the bird from the corner of her eye and she can only hope she is faster.    
She hears Asra call out something, but can’t make out the words. When she reaches the end of the deck, she jumps. She tries to grab hold of the branch, tries to land on it more than anything but misses and slips. Scraping her forearm against the bark, she’ll deal with that later. Regardless she swings herself towards the writhing snake.

In the process she accidentally kicks the bird.    
Which, while an accident, as far as she can tell  _ looked  _ planned so she won’t say otherwise. 

The bird retreats for a moment, trying to get steady itself after the kick. While it does so, Eos takes the opportunity to move further down the branch. Swinging again, letting go and grabbing onto it a second time. She’s at least within reach of the snake now. 

She hears the bird’s wings, more than she hears it’s cry. 

She extends a hand, gripping onto the snake as firmly as she can without hurting it and pulls it off the branch. Then, she falls. 

 

In the time it takes for them to fall to the water, the snake wraps itself around Eos’ hand and arm. She curls up around her arm. Leaving little room for the eagle to make one last ditch attempt for the snake before her back hits the water, hard. 

She is underwater once again, and at this rate she is exhausted from all of the shit that goes on. She needs a month between incidents like these at least.    
She sinks fast through the water, momentum pushing her down, and her back impacts against a protruding rock. The pain shocks her for a moment then she feels as though she is just floating. It takes her a second to recognise the feeling of arms around her waist. The snake around her arm squeezes tight just as they break the surface of the waves. The second they do she takes in a huge breath. Her hair is plastered against her face, the water around the snake and her arm is tinged a faint red that quickly dissipates as another wave washes over them. 

“ _ Eos _ , are you alright, are--” Asra’s voice shocks her out of her stupor. When she looks at him, he is saying something but she is completely captivated by his eyes. Later, she will claim it was the sudden impact that addled her for a few seconds. But he looked so worried, so concerned for  _ her _ , how could her heart not react? 

He has stopped talking, was he waiting for her to say something?

“... Got your snake.” 

Speaking of, the snake in question unfurls from her arm. Floating on the surface of the water and wraps around Asra’s waist. Their tongue flicks out, head bobbing as it looks at Eos. Cute.

“You are so very impossible,” Asra says, his arms soon wrapping tight around Eos in a hug. She rests her chin on his shoulder, fingers splayed against his back on either side of the fin that runs down along his spine. 

“You know, a lot of people tell me that but it’s never a good thing for them,” She says, her voice light and joking. She wants to reassure him that she’s fine. 

If anyone spotted them now, they might think he was preparing to drown her.

“Why don’t you introduce me to this absolute darling in reparation for keeping a bird from eating them?” They release each other, Asra’s hands lingering at her sides for a second or two before they drop to unwrap the snake from around his waist. He is smiling, and it makes him practically glow. The snake coils around his arms, tongue flickering in the air. 

“This is Faust, she’s an angel really, though I hope she won’t make a habit of disappearing and getting stuck in trees,” He says, though his words should sound scolding he now seems more amused than anything.

_ ‘Fun!’ _ Eos thinks that she thinks in an odd little voice--   
Wait.

“Did--” She squints and frowns at Faust, no it couldn’t be. Could it? “Did she just…?” She’s hearing voices, she’s sure of it. 

“You heard her?” Asra looks almost as shocked as she feels before he grins, “She’s adorable isn’t she?” 

“She is,” She murmurs and reaches out to gently stroke the snake under the chin. Tapping the tips of her fingers gently against her. “You have a telepathic snake, and you call  _ me  _ impossible. You, Asra, are extraordinary.” 

“You are one to talk, Eos, you capture storms and rescued Faust, you lead a very intriguing life.” 

She finds herself drifting in the water closer to him. Faust has slithered off of him by now, floating on the surface of the water and generally doing her own thing while waiting for the two of them to be done. Asra’s lips are full and plush, she cannot stop staring. A wave crashes over the two of them, a small one, and plasters Asra’s hair to his face. With a laugh, she brings her hands up and pushes the white locks away from his eyes. Her hands drift down to the sides of his neck, fingertips ghosting over the gills there. At her touch he inhales sharply. His hands float at her hips, just barely touching her. He opens his mouth to say something, head bent down towards her own, before a larger wave crashes against them. Harder this time, and sends Eos under the water.

She surfaces, and she is laughing, but her mind is clear from what fueled that moment.    
She is cold.

“I’ll catch a cold if I keep getting into this water,” She says, pushing her soaked hair behind her ears, “I should go.” She scratches Faust gently under her chin for a final time before turning back to Asra. “I’ll see you another time, then?” 

“Yeah,” He runs a hand back through his hair, there’s a pinkness in his cheeks she hadn’t noticed previously. Perhaps his face is just like that. “When that storm hits, right?” 

“If not before.”

She waves goodbye to them from the shore, waiting until they are out of sight before she walks back along the beach towards the Portsoy. She is soaking wet and cold in the breeze, but she feels light and happy. Her arm is sore from the scrape and she’ll have a bruise on her back. But for the most part, she is fine. More than fine. 

She slinks back to her cabin, and lights the fire in the hearth. It has been an eventful day, and eventful fortnight. It’s exhausting.

She prepares to sleep before she sees the letters sitting on the desk she’d had to set up again. One was from Nadia, judging by the elaborate seal on it. A twinge of guilt goes through her. She should’ve written back to her before going out anywhere. She must be terribly worried. She’s never late on her letters. 

The other also holds a familiar seal. It’s an unwelcome sight, for a myriad of reasons. Mainly that she doesn’t know  _ which  _ member of her family used it. She’s not eager to find out.

For now she turns her attention to Nadia’s letter.   
With the knife in her boot, she carefully separates the wax seal from the envelope and slips out the letter inside. She sits at her desk to read it, smiling at the familiar linking script on the pages.

It is nothing too unusual, the same documentation of Vesuvia’s affairs and Nadia’s continued annoyance at the courtier’s incompetence. Of new things that happened, exciting things, new plans and ideas for the city. Nadia was a genius, as usual, and cared deeply for her people.    
She missed Nadia, she’d been a wonderful friend. 

She is quick to pull some parchment from out of her storage area in the desk. She wets her quill with ink and begins to write. 

_ ‘Dear Nadia, _

_ I wish I could give you an excuse or the true reason behind my late reply. If I were to be honest, you might think me mad or a liar, and I cannot stand to lie to you with some other explanation. However, I will tell you all I can of the events that lead to my unfortunate lapse in communication to you in but a moment. _

_ I am elated to hear that the waterfront district of Vesuvia has finally completed it’s restoration. This will greatly benefit the people who live there and bring in some more trading ships, as you well know.  _

_ I am also quite amused at the courtiers’ antics myself. Though I do see how they are a hindrance to restoring Vesuvia to its former glory, if they didn’t hold such high positions one might keep them around for the entertainment they provide alone. After all, twenty loose chickens chased by Mercedes and Melchior through such an important dinner with the neighbouring cities, all thanks to those three? If you had my restraint you might’ve killed them. They are lucky you can be so patient.  _

_ As for my brother; No, I haven’t heard from him yet. I have received a letter beside your own that bears my family crest so there is a chance that this is from him. However, I do doubt that he would contact me now of all times. I suspect it is likely from my father requesting me once again to return home from my “extended” bachelor’s journey. He has yet to send anyone after me so perhaps he has gotten the hint that this shall be an indefinite affair. _

_ As for the past two weeks in which I have been unable to write you a letter, I shall explain best I can while leaving certain details out to save your respect of me and keep you from being concerned for my psyche. Though I assure you, if I were able to tell you I would be telling the truth. Even I can recognise how outlandish that it is, and would rather save your good opinion of me to keep our friendship smooth than expose a truth that need not be told.  _

_ The town here, as I explained before my departure, is rife with storms of all kinds. Severe weather here is common and greatly damages the trading aspect of this town’s economy. I sailed out on a small fishing boat to capture an oncoming storm and to attempt to find the core storm that has been causing all of this damage. Perhaps I had ought to have hired a crew and larger ship, but I was overly cautious of my funds and was worried about being unable to afford much else after the initial journey.  _

_ None the less I sailed out on this small boat. There is an island near this place that I was unaware of that is a hotspot for siren and merfolk activity. I thought I would have time to capture the storm and be on my way, but it appears I did not.  _

_ While I did get the storm, and it sits here on my desk with me, my boat was overturned by a frenzy of merfolk and I was dragged underwater. I survived, evidently, but I did pass out and the next thing I knew I was in some form of underwater cave. My wounds bandaged and I was definitely alive.  _

_ Here is where I must leave out a myriad of details, my friend, and I know for sure this must frustrate you. But for the protection of my saviour, I must. There is a person who saved me and then when I was well enough to travel, returned me to the Portsoy.  _

_ Nadia, I have  _ met _ someone.  _

_ I am terrified of what that implies for me and my fate.  _

_ Beyond this, there is an unusual formation near this place. I have told you extensively of naturally occuring “glass” formations that occur when lighting strikes sand. But I have never, in all of my travels and readings, seen or heard of something quite like this. _

_ I walked along the beach today for I was told when I arrived of a black sand beach. I had intended to use this sand to see if I could create black glass without added materials or chemicals. Finding it was easy enough, but the entire area is covered in fulgurite. Not only this, but it is completely smooth and black. Pure black. It looks incredibly unusual. I wonder if there is something in this sand itself that allows this to happen. I am quite curious as to what might happen when I use it to make an ornament.  _

_ Speaking of, with this letter should arrive a different kind of ornament. A glass lotus. Within it is the first storm that I captured in this area. It should, at the least, provide an interesting reading light and paper weight. And at the most you will be able to punt it at the next courtier to annoy you. _

_ Perhaps Vlastomil? _

_ Regards,  _ _   
_ _ Your dear and very sorry for being late friend, _

_ Eosphorus Dogmatikó, _ _   
_ _ The glass smith. _

When the letter is done, she slips it into a fresh envelope and seals it with a simple mark. It is one bearing the sign of the cockatrice. It would be scandalous, back in her home city, to display this mark as one’s own. To take it on as she had.   
Perhaps that is why. 

She places the envelope down, and puts the glass lotus on top of it so that she won’t forget it in the morning when she goes to find the local courier to deliver it. 

“Should I have written about Asra?” She whispers to herself, then shakes her head.    
‘ _ No, I was right to leave him out. To admit that I was as well. Nadia deserves that much, and I could not stand risking Asra after all he’s done for me.’  _   
She sits, nervous at her desk.    
Is that the only reason she wants no one to know of those events?

Regardless, she shakes the thoughts from her mind for a second time and prepares to sleep for the night. 

The next day, after sending the letter and glass lotus off with a courier, Eos headed to the kilns to see about using the black sand she had collected to make something new. She spent most of the morning ensuring the kilns were of a good enough quality to use the sand for. Using common sand before she switched it out for what she’d gathered. 

In the end, as she suspected, using the sand produced the same sort of glass she’d seen back at the beach. More refined, and with a better shape, but definitely the same pitch black glass.    
The glass is turned over and over in her hand. It is a simple design, a fox with a snake coiled around it. Not with the intent to hurt, but merely wrapped around. 

It reminds her of Asra for some reason. 

When the glass has cooled, Eos pockets it. It will be interesting to see how it reacts to a storm. She suspects that it was some unusual properties.   
After all, there could be magic in anything. 

Eos doesn’t have to wait long for the storm, it hits out of nowhere. Like magic, there is clear skies and the next storm clouds have rolled in. She bolts when she spots it. Immediately making her way towards the docks, running passed people heading for shelter from it. 

She keeps an eye on it while she unties the dingy, once again risking using such a feeble boat against the storm. Will she reach it before it breaks over the Portsoy? Will she survive the journey there.   
Will she make it back if she catches the attention of the mermaids from before?

It doesn’t matter, she has a storm to catch.

She pushes the boat further into the water and jumps into it, as soon as her hands touch the oars they’re rowing themselves towards the heart of the storm. Faster than she or anyone else could’ve done. She didn’t have much with her, if the figurine she just made didn’t hold the storm, then she would have to think of some other way of dissipating it. 

It doesn’t take long to reach the heart. To sit beneath the center of storm and to believe you could tame it seems to be hubris. 

She stands up, tries to keep her footing as the ocean beneath the boat rocks it this way and that. Seaspray shoots into her face, so she closes her eyes to protect them from the salt and water.

Just as she is about to pull the storm down, a weight comes onto the boat behind her. The sudden tilting of the boat from this new presence startles her and she almost gives herself whiplash looking over her shoulder to check whatever it was.

When she does, she sees Asra has lifted and draped himself over the boat, tail hanging over the side and dipping into the water. It’s less draped, more like he’s lounging in the boat. 

“Glad you could make it!” She calls over the sound of thunder and the crashing of waves, with a smirk she turns her attention back upwards. Towards her quarry.

“Wouldn’t miss it!” He calls back. He has no eyes for the storm, only for her as she stands up to challenge it’s right to be here and to be free. There’s something powerful about a woman like that, something he particularly likes.

Just like before, on the night they first met, she calls the storm down with her willpower alone. It resist, it rants and raves and throws a tantrum. Lightning strikes the water around them and the waves grow bigger and threaten to overturn them. Through it all, Eos keeps her balance and does not back down. She stares up at it, as though she is more powerful. She  _ is  _ more powerful. It is her willpower that keeps the storm here, it is her willpower that will drag it down an entrap it. 

She begins to pant, magic on every breath and in every rise and fall of her shoulders. With a scream she thrusts the black figurine up towards the sky. For a moment nothing happens, then it is as though the sky comes crashing down. The storm, clouds, lightning, all, comes shooting towards them at neck breaking speeds. She closes her eyes as it hits, almost knocking the glass from her hand as it absorbs each piece of the storm. The world shakes and spins around her.

Then, there is something off about it all. Her hands start to tremble, too much force behind the storm for her to keep hold of the figurine. Her eyes open wide, shoulders stiffening as she realises it. There’s the potential she could let this storm grow out of control. It could wreak havoc all it wanted up in the sky, but down here it might kill them.

Hands slide up the sides of her thighs to rest on her waist, Asra leans in close to her, his focus having of shifted to the serious matter of the storm and it’s containment. He steadies her, keeps her from falling from the force of the storm.   
She stares at him, and pushes her fear down.   
She could not allow another incident to happen while she is capturing this storm. She strengthens her resolve, tightens her grip on the black fox and snake pair. She would win this, because she always does.

It takes a minute or two, but eventually the figurine has captured the entirety of the storm and the skies are calm once again. If anything just at a slight drizzle of rain from the clouds that remain. 

She sits down, legs shaking and leans back against Asra’s tail. If he’s in her boat then he’ll have to deal with her leaning all over him. The figurine is clutched tight to her chest, the lightning standing out against the black it is surrounded by.

Asra shifts around and behind her, pulling her up closer to his chest so that he could gain a better look at the figurine. It crackles with the storm they’d just captured together. She holds it up higher for him to get a better look.

“Not bad, right?” She says as she leans her head back against his damp shoulder. With a foot she kicks the oars, letting them row them towards the beach slowly.

“It’s gorgeous, to think that entire storm is now inside here…” He runs a finger down the back of the fox, practically mesmerized. She presses the entire glass piece into his hands. He turns it, tilting this way and that to get a better look. “You made this?” He asks, there is awe in his voice, she feels a surge of pride.

“I did,” She turns her head to look at him. ‘ _ He is beautiful, _ ’ she thinks, ‘ _ Terrible. _ ’ “It’s for you.” 

“For me…” He closes his eyes, bringing the figurine to his chest before he presses his lips to her hair, “Thank you.” 

They stay like that for a while longer, not pointing it out not mentioning. Just floating along the water and slowly drifting back towards the shore. They don’t talk much, but Asra’s arms are tight around her and if she closes her eyes she might mistake this for something more.    
Her heart feels light, unworried.

When he leaves, when he  _ has  _ to, she leans over the side of the boat and he runs the back of his fingers against her cheek as he sinks down into the water below. 

Eos does not believe in love at first sight, or in such a short space of time.   
But she does know that sometimes there is inescapable beauty in the world, so what is the point in running away?

Everything catches up in the end. 

She is welcomed back when she reaches the docks again, it’s more than likely the storm would’ve damaged the boats here and the docks themselves. They were hardly sturdy after all. For every storm she takes, it is another day where they do not have to try and repair this place. It is a small mercy. 

There is something strange about the town however. She had taken quite a bit of time coming back, having of been in no rush to return. Though some people had gathered at the dock, a larger congregation she could see were heading towards some figures at the other side of the rather small town. 

“What is happening over there?” She asks an older fisherman as he helped her out of the dingy. It was curious, other than her and the occasional ship crew passing by, she’d been lead to believe there were no people interested in this place. 

“Some former clansman comin’ ‘round to show himself off, probably looking for mercenary work.” The man huffs, continuing on about the unreliability of mercenary groups. Eos says nothing, only stares towards the group. She cannot imagine what sort of mercenary work could be found here, it’s been such a peaceful Portsoy so far. If anything the merfolk caused the most trouble, but that was true for every town that had its main export in the ocean.

“Well, it should be pleasing to see them go then,” She says as she starts walking off towards her the bar. She’s no interest in mercenaries, it wasn’t as though they would have much business with her after all.    
She was just a glass smith.

A glass smith that needed another set of drinks. Who could blame her, it’d been an  _ interesting  _ couple of weeks.   
Unlike the crowd outside, it seemed few people who had already been inside the bar were interested in either the storm or in the mercenaries that had found their way to this place. Which suited Eos perfectly fine. 

It was easy to settle in here. To order the same thing, pay the same rate, and know what to expect. Predictability could be a curse, but, when looking for something less insane, also a blessing. 

That captain Devorak was still around, likely the storm had pushed back his plans to depart-- that is if he planned to depart today. From what she’d heard, it was rare crews that large tended to stick around. He waved to her when she entered, a grin on his face.

“Brought down another one, eh?” He calls to her, he is jovial and oddly she finds herself grinning back. 

“All in a day’s work,” She says as she passes by, heading for that usual table of hers. In the corner, out of the way and where she could think clearly. With the addition of Julian’s crew, the bar was a bit more crowded than usual, thankfully her table was left well enough alone.

She was through her second glass of her port and working on the third when the mercenaries from outside came in. Loud, rowdy with scarcely a care in the whole world for her perfectly peaceful evening. Quite rude.

She doesn't pay them any mind. Pointedly ignoring the not so subtle call for attention from the blonde man that appeared to be the head of their group. She brings her hand up with a huff to block him from her sight. Though her hand can't block him from her ears as he begins to boast and talk of previous accomplishments. It's when he talks of Vesuvia that she actually pays attention.

“-- And that  _ Countess _ , Vesuvia’s ruler and I are quite close, you know, if you get what I'm saying.”

That implication… 

She laughs, hearty and loud, disbelief clear in the sound as it echoes out of her chest. Him, with  _ Nadia _ ? That was the most ridiculous thing she'd heard in a while. Unfortunately her laughter draws the attention of the boasting man, he stalks towards her. In his gait she sees the footsteps of a hunter. A former clansman indeed. 

He brings his hand down on her table, gold prosthetic glints in the lantern light.

“Something funny about that?” He’s grinning but there's maliciousness behind it, designed to make others cower before him. She straightens up straighter, a grin of her own forming as she stands up. Getting right up into his face. She's nowhere near as tall as him, but she has something he doesn't. 

An actually intimidating presence. 

“There is actually,” she begins, picking at her nails nonchalantly, “You see, I recently came from Vesuvia’s court. I'm a glass smith you see with some unique talents and the Countess asked for me to join her court for a while,” She looks up at him through her eyelashes. Tiny bolts of electricity dart between each individual lash, “Thing is, she never mentioned  _ you _ , far as I understand it you're not on the team she plays for.” She is louder than she needs to be, but he deserves for everyone to hear. She picks up her glass and downs what remains in it. 

She pushes passed him, but his hand catches her forearm. He doesn’t say anything, but the gold of his fingers is harder than she thought it’d be and digs into her skin. She pulls her arm out of his grip.   
She’s seen enough of these people. 

She learns, later, that there is a reason that the mercenaries are here. They have been tasked with seeking something, some patron probably wanting them to scare someone out of a family heirloom that they believe is valuable.    
Really it is none of her business.   
She finds it odd they’re not  _ doing  _ anything however. There’s a feeling in the back of her mind that this is all incredibly suspicious. 

Suspicious, yes, but not something she spends her time thinking about. Her mind is already preoccupied with someone else.

She sees Asra as often as she can, meeting him on that black beach. They meet like that day after day. Her heart swells when she meets him, when she touches him and speaks to him.

Mostly, they just talk. Of magic, magical theory, of the things they've seen. Eos tells Asra of Vesuvia, of the  _ good _ parts of Firent, and of all the other places and people she has experienced in her travels. She omits her family, but she always does at the beginning. In return, Asra tells her of every underwater wonder he has found. Of magical artefacts that manipulated the Earth and that created a false fire that survived underwater. He tells her of underwater volcanoes and of the different kinds of merfolk that no one who lived on land had ever seen. 

There are things he does not tell her, but she doesn't press.

There are days where all Asra can do is stare at her. When she plays with Faust in the water while he pretends to still be asleep floating beside them or on rocks by the shore. When she is lost in passionate speech on some issue or particular topic.    
He admires her tenacity. The drive inside of her that pushes her to force her way through life.    
Her takes on academic subjects can be…  _ interesting _ , but she shows intelligence behind incomprehensibility. 

She is wonderful when she stands in the surf, half undressed and almost dares the water to sweep her away.   
Her silhouette against an orange sky haunts him.

He dreams of following the curvature of her body some nights and wakes aching.

“I have a question for you,” She says one evening. Her legs dangle over the edge of a rock and into the water. Every so often a wave will come and drench her up to her waist. Beside her, in the water, Asra watches Faust as she explores the nooks and crannies of the area they had found. 

“What would that question be?” He turns his attention towards her and lifts himself up onto the rock. 

He has amazing upper body strength.

“You don't sing, do you?” It is more of a statement than a question, it hangs in the air. Met with silence for a few seconds.

“Ah, no. I don’t. Why would I need to, I… Hm. I don't need to lure people down, I have almost everything I want or need.” 

Almost. Life is filled with them. But she can’t imagine someone more deserving of something better than Asra.

“Almost everything?” Eos asks, his hand lays on top of her own and she flips her hand around to link their fingers together. 

“Why do you trust me?” 

“Huh?” The question is… Surprising, and difficult to answer. Why  _ does  _ she trust him? Why does she feel the way she does about him, even if she is hesitant to admit it?    
She knows her answer, but how much does she want to tell him?

A rock falls from the cliffs above them, before they can turn their heads to see a figure has already vanished. They put it down to gravity alone.

“You’re kind, Asra,” ‘ _ You are kind and you are beautiful _ ,’ “You saved my life, stayed with me while my wounds healed. But I also love to talk with you. You have these amazing and outlandish takes that I could not conceive of, you light up when we talk of magic and you have a wonderful heart,” She pauses, looking down at her lap, “I was scared to trust you at first. All we ever hear of merfolk is the danger, it is all we ever see. Regardless, you’ve made me feel safe, happy even.” 

Once again, she is met with silence for a few seconds before he turns towards her. His free hand tilts her face up and towards him. 

His lips are soft, softer than she’d imagined them to be. Her face warms at the kiss, but she doesn’t pull away or freeze. She shifts on the rock and her other hand moves up to his shoulder. It is as though electricity is running up and down her spine and she doesn’t ever want this to stop. 

Her lips part with scarcely much provocation, and he takes the opportunity, as it is presented to him, to slip his tongue into her mouth.    
He does not, as she might have of expected, taste like fish. 

He pulls her closer, and she cannot resist. Would not.    
He does not need his voice to enchant her, he has some natural charm apparently.   
She swings herself across his lap, pressing herself against him as his hands move to her waist. Their kiss goes from soft to hard, pining becomes desperation for more. Her hands run through his hair, holding onto the back of his head for dear life. From there, her hands slide down, more than grazing the gills along the side of his neck this time. When she does he moans into her mouth. 

He breaks the kiss and looks up at her, thumbs rubbing circles into her hips. There is something so remarkable about what he sees that his breath is stolen from him. 

He lays down, and pulls her with him, before he kisses her again. 

When she returns to the docks and begins to make her way home, she sees once again that band of mercenaries with another crowd around them. Boasting and telling stories once again. Their leader, named Lucio as she’d found out, was telling some tale about how he had hunted down some vicious and gigantic mermaid. It chills her blood when she hears it, when he stares at her as he describes with a grin how he had driven a sword through the creature’s chest.    
She does not react, but her heart is pounding with the possibility that he  _ knows _ .    
She heads home, and she finds a new letter from Nadia sitting on her doorstep. 

‘ _ Dear Eosphorus, _

_ I will not pretend that your lack of letters sent had not worried me, and while the lack of whole explanation as to what had happened to you is vexing I will not press the matter not just due to the ordeal you faced; but also because you have requested it and been honest with me where you feel you can.  _

_ My curiosity is not satiated, I do hope that someday you will tell me your story. Regardless of how outlandish it appears--’ _

She reads the rest of the letter inside, once more sitting down to pen a response to the Countess.

‘ _ Dear Nadia, _

_ I understand that it is vexing, and due to some recent developments there may be a time in which I will have to explain those circumstances. But that day is not today, and there are other matters I have to discuss which might prove more entertaining and more irritating.  _

_ A mercenary group has come to this Portsoy, claiming that they are searching for some item or artefact for their patron. Whether this is true or not, I do not know. The leader of this group is called Lucio, and seems to be a former clansmen from the North.  _

_ I encountered him earlier this week when I went to have a few drinks, though the place was already crowded with this ship crew that has yet to leave, the mercenaries came in and were as rowdy as you would expect them to be. They boasted of their previous accomplishments (Truly it is all they seem to talk about), and one in particular caught my attention for how utterly ridiculous it was.  _ _   
_ _ This man, the leader, claimed to have of spent  _ several _ nights with you. Coincidentally this time aligned within when I was in Vesuvia myself with you.  _ _   
_ _ Do be assured I did mention this to him. Loudly. For everyone to hear. He was hardly pleased but what could he do?  _ _   
_ _ Even if he had of tried something, I can handle myself more than well enough.  _

_ Other than this, I did use my aforementioned black sand to make a new piece of glass. It seems to have no unique properties which is disappointing, but something may come to light as time passes.  _

_ Though, I gifted it to someone who has become a bit dear to me.  _ _   
_ _ I must tell you, Nadia, he is the most beautiful person I have ever seen. There are, admittedly, complications; but I do so enjoy his company and we can talk for hours and not run out of things to say.  _

_ I am terrified, this is exhilarating.  _

_ I hope that Vesuvia is not giving you too much trouble. _

_ Regards,  _ _   
_ _ Your friend, _

_ Eosphorus Dogmatikó, _ _   
_ _ An oddly happy woman. _

This place has proven to be a place of challenges for Eos. It has been dangerous, and rewarding.   
She touches her lips with the tips of her fingers, the phantom feeling of Asra’s persists.    
Soon, she sleeps and her dreams are focused on him. 

There is so much danger in the world when one does not have their eyes open to see it. 

It only takes a whisper for prying eyes to go searching for things they should not see.

The trouble begins a few weeks later. There is no wind for ship sails, so the sailors must remain. It hardly bothers them to stick to dry land, but they seem antsy regardless. The mercenaries have stuck around as well, claiming they are still searching for their artefact. 

None of it is Eos’ business, until it is made her business. 

“I capture storms, Julian, I do not create or command the weather. I could not get your ship sailing, and even if I could I only have so much range. You would end up in the middle of your journey without any wind in your sail. I’m sorry, you will have to wait.” 

He has asked her for the seventh time to try to summon a wind, even a breeze. Each and every time she denies him. It is not within her ability. Perhaps she could give them the wind, but it wouldn’t last long. It’s hardly her forte, her magic is more aggressive. She’d destroy the boat at worst, wouldn’t help it at best.

“Are you sure there is nothing you can do? Anything would help, you’re a magician, surely--”

“I am a magician. But even I have limitations, I can’t go with you on your journey to ensure the wind keeps and I can’t remain here and keep you suspended. You will wait. I have business to attend to, Julian, we shall speak another time.” She bows her head towards him before she walks off down towards the beach. Julian lingers, he is growing restless here in this Portsoy. He can almost feel some sort of bad omen in the back of his mind. That something bad will happen, he wishes to be away before that storm hits. 

“Awfully unhelpful isn’t she?” A voice sounds from behind him. Lucio appears, practically out of nowhere for how loud he always seemed to be. Julian already regrets not moving on before the man had arrived, he could only hope for the right weather now. “I wonder where she  _ goes _ everyday. Really, it only ever seems to get calm like this when she goes out on the ocean, right?”

He knows he shouldn’t listen, but there’s something about what he says that makes sense. Like there was something off about her. Or at least about where she was going. 

He turns towards Lucio, he is suspicious, but he will listen.

“What do you mean?” 

Lucio puts a hand on Julian’s shoulder, and he barely resists the urge to shrug it off and walk away.

“Come with me, I’ve got a plan to figure out what she’s doing, and whether it’s the source behind our problems.”

.

Later that day, when Eos is returning home, lips kiss swollen and cheeks warm, she finds Lucio at her doorstep. Two letters in his hand, he’s looking over their seals.    
One is Nadia’s,   
The other her family’s crest is displayed.

“I didn’t realise we had a priestess of Firent on our hands,” He doesn’t look up at her when he speaks, but she can hear the smirk in his voice. “Pretty high up there too, aren’t you a little old to still be travelling? One would think you’d be ruling over some pretty little portion of the city by now.” He stands up, holding the two letters out towards her. 

“I’m no priestess,” She snatches the letters from him, holding them close to her. She’s going to have to read that letter from her family now.  _ Two  _ in such a short time frame? Something must have happened, or they’re actually going to send someone after her. “And one might expect you to still be travelling with your clan,” She glances over him. There is an abundance of red in his attire, his warpaint is smudged beneath his eyes. She knows where he’s from. “Did you grow tired of the beatles or did they kick you out?” 

His expression contorts for a moment. Surprised, angry. Before he smooths it back over with what seems like a great deal of effort. 

“Not a priestess, huh?” He smiles, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning against the walls of her cabin. “I know someone back in Firent, I’m sure your family would be ecstatic to know that you’re more than willing to have someone escort you back. Can’t have a rogue wandering around after all.” He pushes away from the wall, raising a hand in a wave as he begins to walk away.

“Why are you doing this?” She asks, staring after him. She couldn’t go back to Firent, she’d rather die. 

She receives no answer, and instead rushes inside of her home to tear open the two letters she’d gotten from her family.

The first one is from her mother, the second her father.

‘ _ Eosphorus, _

_We’ve been well, no thanks to you and your brother’s continued absence and lack of dedication to the pantheon the whole city_ must _serve. Your father and I--’_   
Eos tosses the letter in the fire, she has no energy for her mother.

Her father’s letter is shorter, more simple.

‘ _ Eosphorus, Hyperion, _

_ Come home, or someone will come for you. _

_ Geramimos Dogmatikó, _ _   
_ _ Third of His name and servant of Cephalonia.’ _

It seems regardless, there is something to run away from. 

.

It is strange, to be like this. It’d been but a few days since Asra had kissed her, and already she feels settled into this new… Relationship. The beginning of one, a seed of it. He is comforting, comfortable. It is easy to be affectionate with him and it is such an  _ odd  _ thing. Once, affection had to be won, had to be earned. Yet Asra gives it so freely and so willingly that her heart might burst from it all. 

“So you’re  _ not  _ going to tell me about the gill thing?” Eos raises an eyebrow at the faintly blushing mermaid above her. Her fingers are but a few centimeters away from the body part in question, she doesn’t move her hands towards his gills. Instead gliding them over his shoulders and to his chest. 

“I- Uh, there’s far more interesting things to talk about than--” She kisses him to interrupt him, he sinks down slightly into the motion. Perhaps eager to avoid answering.   
She gets the gist of the situation with the gills regardless, she’s not an idiot.

“Maybe,” He starts, running the back of his fingers down the side of her cheek, “I’ll tell you about it’s about to be applied.” His hand comes down to her collarbones, fingers spread against the exposed skin.

“Are you suggesting we f--” 

She isn’t sure what she notices first. The sudden taste of blood in her open mouth, the pain that dominates Asra’s face, or the scream that is coming from her own mouth. Before she can react, before she can say anything, there is the sound of someone running towards them and Asra has disappeared into the water. Eos is pulled up to her feet with someone’s arms under her shoulders. When she is turned around, she is face to face with the captain who had but days earlier asked her to summon for him the wind for the final time. His hands are on her shoulders, he is asking her something.

‘ _ I don’t understand _ ,’ She thinks and raises her hand to her face. Her fingers come away with Asra’s blood on them, Asra’s blood all over her skin, it’s almost all she can see. ‘ _ What is happening?’ _

“Eosphorus,  _ Eosphorus _ , can you hear me?” She snaps to attention when Julian’s voice finally reaches her, he looks concerned for her. “Are you alright? Did he hurt you, were you enchanted?” He looks over her face, as though he can get all the information he needs just from looking at the blood that splatters over it. “You’re safe now, he’s been driven off for now. What were you thinking coming down here alone--”

“What have you  _ done _ ?” She asks. Was there a gunshot? She can’t remember the sound registering in her ears, she just knew Asra was fine one moment and gone the next and she is covered in blood.   
How could there be so much blood? 

“You’re just coming down from the mer voice enchantment, I see it all the time, you’re safe now. Come on, we need to get you back to the Portsoy.” She frowns, lips curling in disgust. He is seeing signs where there aren’t any, danger were there was none. He has  _ shot  _ someone. 

She still tastes the blood. She might throw up. 

“No,” She says, stepping back from Julian. The rocks are unsteady beneath her feet but she has to be anywhere but here. “No, I don’t-- You hurt him-- How did you even… Why are you  _ here _ ?” Did she lead him here accidentally? She was so certain that she’d always been careful about being followed, Asra’s life was always at risk if someone knew where she went. She hadn’t been careful enough, she’d surely been followed. 

Julian’s face contorts, as though recalling something distasteful before he speaks again.

“I’ll explain it all later, but let’s get you somewhere warm before you go into shock once the enchantment fully wears off. Come on, off you pop.” He holds out his hand to help her away from the rocks, as though things were  _ okay  _ between them. 

It wasn’t like he knew, if he did it would only affirm for him the idea of Asra having of enchanted her with his voice. It would put him in further danger.   
She might have to play along, to pretend that this ‘enchantment’ would dissipate so that she might discover what went wrong.   
The bad news continued to pile up it seemed.

She walked right by Julian, ignoring his hand. She had to lead Julian away first, and then get down here without being seen this time. She needed to see whether Asra was okay.

If he even returned there. 

They walk along the beach in silence, the sand gives way to gravel. She hugs herself tight. She can’t even remember the last time that she was that close to getting shot, back when she was still travelling with her brother.

When they reach the edge of the Portsoy, a small crowd runs up to them. 

“ _ You found her!” _ _   
_ _ “The poor thing, she must be so scared after that…” _ _   
_ _ “This is the second time, how awful.” _ _   
_ _ “The merfolk are so terrifying, to think they could do this to even a magician.” _

One person stands out among them, the tall figure of the mercenary leader. He says nothing, just nods at Julian and grins at her. 

She stares right back at him. Shadows are cast around her eyes but the yellow of her irises almost seem to glow. Electricity dances between her eyelashes. She thinks she understands now. 

He wants her gone.   
For mocking him, or because of something else? 

“I’m going home,” She murmurs to no one in particular, pushing through the crowd to make a beeline for her cabin.   
She has several problems to solve.   
Her family,    
Lucio,   
Asra’s wound.

First, she must draw attention off of herself. 

She enters the cabin, and she heads right for her storm filled glass pieces. She rummages through them, examining one before putting it back and repeating. It takes several minutes, but eventually she pulls one out and finds it satisfactory. It is glass pulled into the shape of a bird in flight, inside a storm crackles and sends deep vibrations through her hands. 

She walks to a window of the cabin, one facing away from the Portsoy and opens it up. Holding out her hands with the bird resting on her palms, she gently blows on the glass. At first nothing happens, then it is as though the wind is ruffling glass feathers. There is a twitch, a slight crack.

The glass bird, as though it were living, beats its wings and flies off into the sky. Going higher and higher, the crack that formed on its surface begins to spread and the clouds captured inside of it begins to seep out. Before long, the bird shatters and the storm captured inside spreads out across the sky. Lightning immediately striking the ground, though never any buildings or anywhere near the docks. Rain pummels the ground, coming down harder than anything she’s seen before. 

She waits a while, for when she is sure all have left to escape the storm, and climbs out the window to run to the beach. She holds her arms above her head, as though they can shield her from the rain and wind. 

“He’s gotten his  _ fucking  _ wind now, hasn’t he?” She mutters to herself, bitterness colouring her tone. She couldn’t believe this, couldn’t believe  _ him _ . Regardless of Lucio’s position in all of this, Julian had gone along with it. Though they barely knew each other, she felt quite betrayed. 

Eventually she reaches where she’d seen Asra last. Just before she enters the area, she casts a spell. It’s a simple illusion, to merely make it seem like the beach was empty of people. 

“ _ Asra! _ ” She calls out as she scrambles over rocks, heading towards the water. She has to find him, she has to  _ help _ him. She runs into the water, going waist deep and screaming out for him as the storm ahead thunders. “ _ Asra! _ ” 

‘ _ Help! _ ’ 

“Faust?” She turns this way and that, trying to spot the white snake and runs towards her as she floats on the surface of the water. “Faust! Where is Asra, is he alright?” She holds out her hands, Faust coiling around her arms to wrap around her shoulders.

‘ _ This way!’  _ Faust slithers right off of her again, swimming further along the beach. Eos chases right after her, every second spent waiting was a second where Asra was still at risk.    
They continue on for a few more minutes, eventually coming to a small cove. Rocks arc over the top and the entry is barely two meters wide. Easy to hide in. With Faust leading Eos heads right inside, running over the top of the rocks in the water. 

The water gets a bit more shallow, coming down to her thighs, just as she spots Asra laying back where the shore met the water. She could see his chest rise and fall, he was breathing, at the least. 

“Asra,” She whispers, rushing to his side and falling to her knees. Blood is still coming from the wound in his side. His eyelids flutter and twitch, but he doesn’t move much beyond that. She presses her hands to the wound.   
She’s no expert in healing magic, but for him she will try. 

First the bullet has to come out. 

She closes her eyes, blinding herself to the world. Deafening herself to the sound around her. Her body grows numb, and all she can focus on is the entry hole and where the bullet has found itself.

Using her magic, just as she calls a storm towards her, she wills the bullet to move. To begin coming out the way it came. Slowly, she pulls the bullet out and feels it press against her palm. She plucks it from the wound and lets it drop into the water.

Next, she has to stop the bleeding and close the wound. She pours everything she has into it, when she is sure the wound has closed she takes her hands away and leaves them in the water so she doesn’t have to see them covered in his blood. 

When she opens her eyes, he is staring at her. One of his hands takes her own and she lays down beside him. 

They rest like that for a while.

“He could’ve killed you,” She whispers, her forehead pressing against his shoulder. 

“But he didn’t, because of you,” He says back, his thumb rubbing against her skin, “You saved me, Eos, I’m okay.” 

“If they see you again… I don’t want you to get hurt because of me, Asra.”

“It’s not because of you, they would have done it either way. I’m not going anywhere.”

She falls silent, wrapping her arms around his waist. There is so much more wrong here. So much more that puts him at risk. Julian, Lucio,  _ whoever  _ her family is sending after her. She is scared.    
Asra frowns, lifting himself up onto his elbows and gently running his hand over her hair. There is more to this, something else is bothering her.

“There’s more isn’t there, did they hurt you?” She sighs, shaking her head. 

“I’m fine, no, let’s talk about this later. You need to rest, Asra.” She sit up, twisting to face him. He shakes his head, grabbing her hand again.

“Eos, if there is something else, please,  _ please _ tell me. I need to know.” They stare at each other for a moment, soon she deflates and lays back next to him.

“There’s someone in the village. A mercenary, Lucio, I think he told Julian to go after me today. He took my mail the other day, threatened to have my family come collect me. He’s searching for something here, I’m not sure what.”    
She looks scared almost. Of her family, of this Lucio and what he’s already done. So much is happening, it is becoming overwhelming and drowning her in worries. 

Asra can’t protect her from this.   
He realises that right then.

Asra’s connection to her life is separated from all the rest. He has no impact, not really. If someone hurts her on land, where he cannot reach, he cannot help her. He cannot soothe her, and he certainly can’t prevent anyone from hurting her. 

He is helpless really, hopelessly in love with her and he cannot truly be part of her life outside of these beaches and waters.

What happens if she wants to leave the village?   
What happens if her family does come for her?

“Your family might send someone after you?” He asks, despair is coating the inside of his stomach.

“I am the daughter of a long line of priests and priestesses. Firent, it is ruled by Priest-Lords, of which my father is one. My brother and I are supposed to complete a form of religious training to become priests ourselves and one of us will eventually take his place. Or, we should have,” She pauses and leans back against Asra. “My brother and I left, on a bachelor’s journey as neither of us were engaged. If we get engaged to someone who is not a priest or in training, we forfeit our right to any command over the city. The blood line must remain pure, and our family has already had it’s one allotted scandal. My father will eventually send someone for me and my brother to bring us back, which is why we kept travelling. We didn’t want to go back.” 

They couldn’t really. They didn’t want to be tied down, to devote their lives to something that they didn’t choose.    
Neither wanted to let go of their magic. 

Asra keeps quiet.   
If she stays here, eventually she will be collected and sent away. He cannot propose to her, it would mark him a dead man and her an insane woman.   
If she left, he might never see her again unless she stuck to the sea. 

He cannot travel with her. 

He kisses the top of her head. There is nothing he can do but offer reassurances.

“No one is coming to take you, I promise.” 

She shakes her head and closes her eyes.   
She knows someone will one day. But she has time. 

When Eos returns to the village, under the cover of the storm, she cannot help but overhear conversation as she slips back inside of her cabin.

“ _ She isn’t answering.” _ _   
_ _ “Is she still bewitched?” _ _   
_ _ “How terrible, to be lured in by such a creature. How long until it fades away?” _ _   
_ _ “That mercenary, Lucio, said it might not end until the creature dies.” _ _   
_ _ “Oh, no! The poor darling, we can only hope the captain and the mercenary find it soon.” _ _   
_ _ “I didn’t realise they were looking for it.” _ _   
_ _ “Oh, yes. They believe that the creature might have what the mercenaries are looking for, and might be the cause for all the odd weather we’ve been having. Two birds one stone, they said.” _ _   
_ _ “That must be how she got bewitched, she was trying to save us all.” _ _   
_ _ “She’s so brave, we can only hope the enchantment ends soon.” _

Eos’ hands cover her mouth as she slides to the ground, her back to the door. 

“They’re going to try and kill him, and it’s all my fault.” 

In the morning, a sizeable group consisting of several of the villagers, Julian’s crew and Lucio’s mercenaries, had gathered into a hunting party. Aiming to use their fishing boats and Julian’s ship to search the waters and walk along the shore to try and spot the merfolk.   
Ridiculous, really, but it appears Lucio had them all fired up. Charismatic, but a bastard nonetheless. 

The crowd knocks on her door, waking her that day. She is disheveled, eyes still slightly red from tears during the night and hair unbrushed. She looks as sick as they probably think she is. At the front of the crowd a man pipes up. She recognizes him, he is a fisherman that she’d saved when she arrived here. She’d gone out onto the ocean aiming to merely collect the storm and had found him and his boat dashed against the rocks of a small island. 

This gathering breaks her heart.

“We’re going to get that beast, miss glass smith, ma’am,” He says, holding an axe in his hands. What has Lucio done to these people? “We’re going to make sure you’re going to be alright, yes we are.” 

She shakes her head. These people could not fight, if they came across a mer who  _ wasn’t  _ Asra they’d be torn to shreds. So much wasted life. 

“No-- No, please, do not do this. This is--”

“We’re not scared, miss!” Pipes up another voice from around the back. It is the ever red cheeked girl who she had once forged a delicate glass ballerina for. She could barely be seventeen years old, and they were letting her go hunting. 

She very much regrets endearing herself to these people now

“You do not want to do this, who knows what you could find. Please, for your own safety let well enough be.” She begs, but they do not listen. They offer more assurances for her safety before the depart to gather in the bar with Julian and Lucio. 

She has to warn Asra. She slams her door shut, and heads back to her collection of glass. She can’t go there in person. It’ll draw attention, and he has to remain hidden. Instead she pulls out a glass eagle, about the same size as a living one. She places it on her desk, and begins to write a letter. Warning Asra of the danger inside of the village, that he should hide, that he should wait until this all blows over. 

‘ _ I will meet you, _ ’ She says in the letter towards the end, ‘ _ when night falls where I saw you last. Please, do not come out of hiding until you are sure I am alone. _ ’ 

She ties the letter to the foot of the eagle, and sends it through the sky to find Asra. 

It is not too soon after that there is a new knock at her door. Taking a deep breath before she opens it, she is face to face with Julian once again. 

To see him again was less than pleasurable for her.

“Eos,” He begins, arms crossed loosely over his chest, pity in his expression, “Might I come in?” 

She can’t exactly say ‘No’, she must keep up an illusion here now. She steps aside, gesturing for him to come in. He has to duck his head to get through the door. He stands beside the table in the kitchenette area. 

“Did you have something you wanted to talk about?” She asks, sitting down at the table and gesturing for him to do the same. 

“I did actually,” He says as he sits down, hands folded on the table in front of him. “I hope you are well enough for this, I understand it was quite the ordeal you went through.” 

“I am, please, what is on your mind?” She is not and she does not care what he’s thinking about.

“I need to know if there is…  _ anything _ that the mermaid spoke to you about, or if there is a place it frequented that you could point us towards. I understand sometimes the memory is affected, but is there anything you remember?” 

She resists the urge to scoff and demand he leave. He has done so much damage, must she entertain this so? 

“Nope, can’t remember a thing. I can’t help you.”

“Are you sure, Eos, not a thing? Any little piece would help, we have to find this creature--”

“Why are you so interested in him, Julian?” She says, standing up from the table. She just wants him gone. “You have driven him off, is that not enough? Do you not see the amount of people you are risking for this? Some of the people in your ‘hunting group’ aren’t even adults!” She takes a deep breath, shaking her head. “You are putting these people in danger. For what? Because you think a mermaid is keeping you from leaving here? Wait another week, the wind will come.” 

“That’s not the point, Eos, it’s a danger--”

“A danger that will multiply if these people find a shoal of of them as opposed to just the one!” She raises her hands, looking away from him. “You don’t even know why Lucio is so interested in this, I don’t know why  _ you  _ are. The people here, I understand. They live here. You two can leave at anytime.” She looks at him, opens her mouth to say more and decides better of it. “Please, leave. I am quite weary.” 

Throughout her ranting, he has grown quiet. Shocked, perhaps, at her vigor in this moment. He holds his tongue and nods, leaving the house but before he exits he says just one thing more. She thinks he will ask her to tell him if she remembers anything, but he surprises her.

“Tell me if you find a reason to distrust Lucio.”

She doesn’t have time to respond before he closes the door behind him.    
Perhaps he suspects more than his actions show, yet his actions speak wonders all on their own. 

She sits back down, her head in her hands. Who knew how many days she had until Asra was found, or she was sent back to Firent?    
She wouldn’t see Asra again once she was, and she wouldn’t see him unless she stayed by the ocean if she left. 

She leaned back in her chair, eyes closing as her face tilted towards the ceiling. 

“If my aunt could see all of this now, she’d hit me on the head for it all,” She smiles and reaches up with a hand. As though to grasp the hand of someone who wasn’t there. “I’m going to disappoint you  _ so  _ much.” 

“ _ THE BEAST,”  _ Someone screams from outside, her eyes shoot open. She overturns her chair in her rush to get to the door. Had he been caught? Had they found Asra and were now planning to hurt him?    
She pulled open the door, swinging it back and ran until she should see the beach from the street. 

Gold glinted in the sun, a gilded arm gripping a struggling creature by their tail. Pulling it away from the shore, their fingers dug into the Earth as they struggled to return home. To safety. She watched in horror as Lucio threw the mermaid forward. Their hair cascading over their face like a dark shroud.

No, it was not Asra.

That did not make it less horrifying. 

From where she was, she could see the blood flooding from their mouth. Their open it to scream.   
Their tongue is gone, ripped out or cut. She doesn’t know.   
Lucio grabs them by their hair, waving his sword in his free hand.

“ _ This is not the beast that has bewitched your people, no! This is but one step closer to purging their kind from your waters. One step closer to  _ salvation!” He sounds triumphant, and she watches as the people crowding around to gawk at the mermaid jeer and encourage Lucio as he brings the sword to the throat of the creature. 

Her feet don’t move in time for her to intervene. Was torture not enough, did he have to kill them too? Mutilation was too far.

She reaches the crowd just as the mermaid’s blood spills out over the gravel and dirt. Splattering the clothes of those closest and gets onto her boots. She stares in horror at the severed head held up by Lucio’s golden hand. Their jaw slack, showing the world their mutilated mouth.    
The last movement she saw them do before the sword cut through their neck was their arm reaching out in front of them.   
_ ‘Coincidence _ ,’ she will think later ‘ _ That they were reaching for me.’  _ Though her instinct had been to reach towards them in return.

“One down, the rest to go,” He says and she wonders how much he could possibly know of her and the situation he was ruining. 

If she’s not careful, this could happen to Asra. Mutilated and slaughtered for the world to see. People would cheer, be happy about it just as they were happy now. The crowd rushes forward to get a better look and jostles her out of her fervor. 

“This is sick,” She mutters, taking a few steps back before turning to head home. 

One was enough, one life lost to Lucio’s manhunt. She couldn’t let the same happen to Asra. 

She walks through her door and can’t hold back the tears before she’s able to close the door fully. Her back presses against it hard as she wraps her arms around her head. To shield herself from what she’d seen like a child might. She sobs, her whole body shivering and shuddering with her crying.   
By all means, if she’d left well enough alone and hadn’t met with Asra again, this wouldn’t have happened.   
By all means if she had  _ protected  _ them, had  _ ensured  _ no one would see them this wouldn’t have happened.   
If she hadn’t come here at all.

She slams her fist against the floor. Gets on her knees and punches it, over and over again and she holds back a frustrated scream.    
“This was  _ not  _ my fault,” She chokes out. She was not responsible for Lucio, for Julian, for any of the people in this  _ ridiculous  _ village, “This wasn’t  _ me. _ ”    
She brings her arm up high and her fist collides with the ground a final time. Knuckles scraped and bleeding a bit, but she feels remarkably better for the moment.   
“I’m going to rip that  _ fucking  _ arm from its socket.”

She won’t let this happen again, but for now she is tired.   
She slips into her bed and she waits for nightfall. There is much she has to say when she meets with Asra. 

Portsoy is alive with activity and people coming to admire the corpse of the dead creature. All filling into the bar to hear how Lucio had captured it.    
She is quick to ensure she has not been followed, pulls up illusions to cover her tracks and make sure anyone coming from behind her wouldn’t notice her even if they stood a foot behind her. 

She heads for the cove where she’d left Asra earlier, checks outside and inside of it then waits for Asra.

It takes a while but she sees his head surface from the water, more of him revealed as he gets closer.    
He glistens in the moonlight. And for all that has happened in such a short span of time that has her head spinning; She could stare at him for an endless eternity. She opens her arms as he gets closer and he pulls himself into them. Arms wrapped around each other, they stay in that position for a few minutes. It is easy to forget the issues surrounding them when they stay like this. 

Eos can’t keep it out of her mind for long. She sees Asra’s blood when she closes her eyes and smells the blood of the mermaid that had gotten caught in the crossfire. 

“Asra,” She says, something in her voice has him stiffen and tighten his grip on her. A silent beg for a few more minutes of forgetting. “Asra, we have to talk.”

“Eos, please,” He could almost tell what she will say. He saw the mermaid get taken, knew she never came back. He can tell that she will want to protect him, hates that she can and he cannot. 

“Asra, this is important. I can’t--” She hesitates, and he cups her face in his hands. Hovers above her, tail settled between her legs, as his thumb pulls her lower lip down slightly. “I won’t let you get hurt because of me. Please…” 

“Just tonight,” He says and leans in close to her, “Give me just tonight.” There is something heartbreaking in his voice. He is afraid, that she’ll say she must leave or she will not see him again to protect him. He can’t have that, he can’t.

She closes the distance between them, her hands run over his shoulders and to his neck. Her moans against her mouth and the caress of her fingertips over the folds and frills of his gills merely encourages him. Tongues press together as they pull on each other. Closing distance as quickly as their pulses raced. 

He pulls her on top of him, having her straddle him. She doesn’t let the kiss break, one hand stays to explore the frilling of his gills while the other snakes to the back of his head. Keeping him close to her while his hands reached up under her shirt to settle at her ribs. There is the slightest movement beneath her, but she ignores it for now.    
He pulls out of the kiss, lips pressing along her jaw, her neck, her collarbone. He bites, teeth nipping her skin, sucking to leave red marks. He pushes her shirt up higher, hands to the sides of her breasts. Her arms rise up and he slips her shirt off of her, tossing it further up the shore and away from the water. She presses against him when her shirt is off, head next to his to whisper in his head. 

“Just tonight,” She says in a voice as soft as the skin beneath his fingertips, “Fuck me tonight.”

He kisses her, it is tongue and teeth and soft moaning when her fingers dig into his gills. He rolls a nipple between his fingers, the touch elicits a sound from the back of her throat. He pinches, releases, holds her breast in his palm while his free hand works to undo the laces and buttons that kept the waistband of her leather trousers tight. When they come undone and fall away, he pushes them down her thighs. He kisses her collarbone, kisses to her breast. His tongue flicking over her nipple. Sucking on it as she shimmies to help him coax her pants the rest of the way off. 

“ _ Asra, _ ” Her voice breathless, as though she’s been holding it for him, when his fingers rub at her clit through her underwear. Just as quick he pushes the fabric off to roll the clit between his fingers. 

His mouth comes off of her nipple with a soft pop, his teeth grazing against the skin of her breast. He brings his hands to her thighs and lies down, pulling her up his body until her crotch was over his mouth. One of her hands in his hair as he laps at her, tongue pressing soft, then hard.    
His hands run over her thighs, fingers tracing the birthmarks on her skin as she shivers above him. He doesn’t take her eyes off her steadily reddening face. She bites on the fingertips of her free hand and stares down back at him. The subtle grinding of her hips tells him to get right to work. He sucks on her clit, occasionally taking the time to run and rub his tongue against her cunt. 

He can feel his cocks begin to harden in their slit when he looks up at her. Knows that he won't let anyone else have this view of her shivering and shuddering when he does something she likes over and over again. While one hand digs into her thigh the other moves down, fingertips starting to press at the entrance to her cunt. Gently massaging it and getting slick with her. When he presses one inside she straightens up and can't hide the pleased sigh that comes from her throat. He waits a few seconds, slowly pumping his finger, before he slowly slides another finger. Repeating the process a third time before he just keeps pumping. The subtle grinding becomes a far more obvious rocking. Her breathing getting a bit heavy, body bending over him. 

He wanted to fuck her into the ground. His cocks twitching at every sound and movement she made. Just barely pressing out of their slit.

He sucked hard on her clit, fingers pumping faster. Pressing against the inside of her, aiming for her g-spot. Every time he touched it she’d gasp or cry out his name. Her hands grasped at her hair, dragged her fingers down her face. Her teeth would clench together, to try and keep herself quiet, before she couldn’t hold it in again and shook above him. The pressure in her stomach builds the more intense he grows.

It didn’t take long to make her cum, to have her panting over him when she was done. He rubbed his thumbs in circles on her hips, giving her a moment before moving her back down him. His dicks slick and fully erect by now pressed against the back of her ass. 

She leans down to kiss him. Tasting herself on his tongue. Lifting herself up and reaching between her legs to try and guide his cock to her cunt. 

When she feels that there are  _ two _ , she freezes. Kiss broken and mouth open in surprise. 

“ _ What? _ ” 

“What?” 

She looks at him, head tilted slightly as though a mere look could draw out the answers she needed from the universe.

_ Two _ ? At least it wasn’t three. That would be completely ridiculous, no one would want that.

She shakes her head slightly, kissing Asra again and continuing with her previous plan. With an adjustment for the extra cock.

Her breathes sharply against her lips as she presses the tips of both to her hole. Lowering herself onto them cautiously. She pulls Asra up to sit, using his shoulders as leverage as she takes in the lengths of him. Thighs tensing as she stretches to accommodate him. His hands grip onto her waist, fingers digging into the soft flesh while he kisses and nips at her neck. When she is fully seated on him his arms are wrapped tight around her. Neither moving to get more used to the sensation. 

She brings her fingers to his chin, tilting his head up and kissing the side of his jaw when she begins to rock against him. Her lips moving downward to his gills. Tongue licking them when he bucks up against her. They're unsynchronized at first, Eos’ hands moving to Asra’s hips to guide him and get them into a rhythm. She is more merciless than he was, leaving a necklace of red marks on his skin across his collarbones and in the area around his gills. Every time one of his cocks rubbed hard against her g-spot she rewards it with a kiss to the frilling of his gills. Her fingers trace the lines that the freckles on his shoulders follow.

He breaths and whispers her name with a hoarse voice against her skin. She is tight around him and her movements send electricity running up and down his spine. He tries to move her slightly, fingers brushing under her arms as he moves.

She clenches tight around him, whole body going tight. 

He'll remember that.

“I,” He says and swallows a lump in his throat.

“Shh,” She looks up at him through her eyelashes, gold filtered through black. His heart swells when he meets her gaze. He kisses her, hard. 

When he finishes he pulls her tight against him. In his head is an explosion of colour and sensation, it makes him gasp and shudder against her. Her body flush against him in every way. There is so much more cum than she'd imagined. He spills himself inside of her and over her thighs. She cums again a few seconds after him, still rocking against him until they're both panting together and lying down in the sand. Her legs wrapped around his tail and his hand at the back of her head. 

He kisses her forehead. She traces his cheekbones with a finger.

They break apart half an hour later, quickly coming down from a post-sex high when the reality of their situation comes into view over the horizon again. She dresses slowly, unwilling to leave and he watches her, unwilling to disappear until the storm blows over. 

He knows she wants him to leave until it is safe, and he knows by then for one reason or another she will be forced to leave. 

“You know what I’m going to ask you, right?” She says, buttoning her pants. Her back towards him. She knows if she looks at him she’ll cry, and all he wants is to see her eyes. 

“I know,” He responds. He grabs fistfuls of sand beneath him. She can hear the hurt in his voice, the frustration. “It’s  _ fine,  _ Eos, it was one incident--”

“It was more than  _ one _ ,” She looks at him over her shoulder, face cast in shadow but her iris  _ glows _ . “Julian shot you, someone died because they were looking for you.  _ Fuck,  _ Asra, there’s probably been another one while we were here,” She turns her gaze back to the horizon. Head tilting up to keep the tears from running down her face. “You didn’t see it, Asra, and I certainly won’t let you  _ experience _ it.”

“You can’t ask this of me,” He throws a fistful of sand towards the water, “It isn’t your choice, it’s mine. I want to see you, to be here for you, can’t that just be enough that we hide here?”    
It wasn’t fair.    
In one sense, he knew she was right. He could not protect her from this, and she would take the brunt of what there was to take.    
He also knew that it could take a very long time until things were safe enough for him to surface. That she may very well be gone by then.

Would that make everything they’d done mean nothing?

“Your life is worth more than that, Asra,” She runs her hands back through her hair, taking a deep breath. The first time she’d seen him, she’d been afraid and willing to do whatever it took to make sure that she survived her encounter with him. Now she wanted to make sure he survived his encounter with her. “You saved my life once, now it’s time you saved your own.” 

“You know you’ll be gone when it calms down, you said as much yourself.”   
She doesn’t respond.   
“Why can’t we have this, Eos?”

“Leave, Asra. Just go home, I’ll let you know when it’s safe,” She starts walking off, dark silhouette against the sky, “Or when I’m collected.”

“That’s  _ bullshit _ , Eos, and you know it.” He says, “This is bullshit, I’m not going to leave. I love you--”

He says ‘love’ and her heart clenches. Chest as tight as it has ever been. Can he not see what ‘love’ has done? She remembers the taste of his blood in her mouth, and the sight of the tongueless mermaid in the centre of Portsoy. She hears Lucio’s threats and the sound of Julian’s pistol.    
Then she sees it all again. 

Asra’s head rolling on the ground, his blood on her hands and staining the dirt. His rotting corpse, his face in pain.

He need not think highly of her, or continue to love her, to be safe.   
Really, he needs to do the opposite.

“We’re not  _ in  _ love, Asra,” She snaps, turning towards him finally. Anger falls over her posture like a storm. The more she says the more air is stolen from her lungs and the tighter his chest gets. The smaller he feels. “We could not  _ ever  _ be. Do you not get that? We’ve barely met each other, you could not say within a couple of months that we are anywhere close to  _ love _ .” She throws a hand up in the air, the sudden shift in her demeanor uncharacteristic. “Not to mention, did you think this could go far? The only time our lives overlap is when  _ I  _ go to  _ you _ . Now that is no way to live. We both deserve better than  _ that _ .” She is not lightning and thunder now, she is icy sheets and the pummeling of hail on cold raining days. “Plenty of fish in the sea, so they say, you’d know that.”

His voice is quiet, as small as she has made him. He believes he knows her, believes that this cannot be what she has been thinking all of this time. If it isn’t, then all it does is make him furious that  _ this  _ is her tactic. 

“You don’t mean that.”

“Whether I do or don’t isn’t important,” She turns back in the direction of the port, arms crossing over her chest. “You’re not safe here, you’re not safe with me,” There is a crack in her voice and he cannot tell if he has imagined it. “So leave, one way or another I’ll be gone too soon.”

“Eos, that’s--” He’s angry, trying to spit out words when in his mind they trip over each other. “You don’t mean that, say you don’t mean it. Let’s just do what we’ve been doing, it’ll be  _ fine _ .” 

“No it won’t. Now go. Just go home, Asra, we both had to know this wasn’t going to last. I’m the only one who can protect either of us competently, so just go fucking home.” She doesn’t let him get another word in and heads back towards the village. In his mind he prays she’ll turn back, that things will calm down. She doesn’t. He picks up a rock and throws it, be it after her or into the water. It falls short either way.

“ _ Fucking _ damn it,” he mutters, pulling himself closer to the water, “I can’t-- I won’t go. I can’t let this end here.”

He slips into the water when she is gone and heads for depths he has avoided all his life. The water is dark enough without the sun in the sky, but it becomes impossibly darker the further he goes down. It is stifling, like it is attempting to strangle him or push him away from what awaits down further. 

Whether she believes what she said or not, she still  _ said  _ it.    
_ Yes _ , she will be forced to leave soon. Yes, as he is he could never be what she required from someone. It would be a pining and unfulfilled existence and relationship. Perhaps spurring resentment. If there was one at all, should she be caught. 

So he will prove her wrong.

There are few merfolk here, the ones that are, are as large as entire villages and barely even resemble their kin in higher waters. Their hair as they float through the water blocks out any light from above. Leaving their bioluminescent markings and scales to give Asra any sort of vision down here.    
Despite the darkness, there is almost an orange tint over the water. Sound travels where it shouldn’t, metal chains rattling together echoed in his ears. Nonetheless, he keeps swimming down, even when it seems like the water itself is trying to pull him back. 

It is the flick of a tail from one of the leviathan merfolk around him that sends him spinning downwards to water that seemed too warm for this depth. He pulls himself along the ocean floor, and when it finds it, he pulls himself inside of the cave that allows him to go even deeper.    
It has been a very long time since he heard stories of this place and the primordial creature within. 

He does not emerge for sometime, but when he does blood oozes from a gash in his chest and he clutches something in his hands. The echo of a laugh follows him all the way home to where Faust waits for him. Already understanding more about this situation and the consequences than he did.    
She wraps herself around his shoulders and stares at Asra’s golden prize. 

‘ _ Why? _ ’ 

He does not answer. He can only muster the energy to sleep.

For weeks Eos does little. She tends the kilns, forges glass ornaments and spends the rest of her time in her cabin. She does not go to the beach, does not even think of it. She doesn’t join in the hunt or entertain conversation of it from anyone.    
At the least, it does appear that she does little else than that.   
She writes several letters to Nadia, enquiring for any information on this mercenary band. Anything she can use to discredit Lucio in the eyes of everyone around him.

Yet there is so little. It is as though he just appeared one day. Emerging from some hole a born fighter, hired by many to fight in battles or for other deeds. Some awfully seedy, others legitimate.    
It is suspicious. She doesn’t understand how, even if he was a former clansman, he just  _ appeared _ . There were no details of him and exploits from a clan, not even the most ferocious of them. There was just. Nothing. 

Like they’d erased him.   
Or he hadn’t existed before he was who he is now. 

Despite the fruitless search, Eos does know something about him now.   
It’s entirely useless information but a start. 

The sun is barely risen in the sky when a series of hard knocks come to her door. Urgent, or merely self important.    
It wakes her up with a start, hand clutched to her chest and for a moment she can only think ‘ _ Asra?’ _   
It’s a foolish thought, she realises soon after. Cheeks hot with embarrassment and slightly teary eyes. She misses him, of course. Never regrets telling him to leave. Regrets simply walking off. She was  _ right,  _ nothing could take that from her at least. 

The knocking starts again, harder this time and it reverberates through her head. 

“Oh my fucking-- I’m  _ coming _ ,” She says and gets up from the bed. She looks like a wreck, hair all over the place and bags under her eyes. She runs a hand over her face, hiding the sleeplessness behind an illusion. It was an improvement at least. 

She yanked opened the door, still in her night clothes, and is greeted by the sight of the local gold armed, silver tongued bastard. She moved to close the door but he pushed his way inside the cabin before she could get the door too far. 

“What are you  _ doing _ ?” She asks, voice harsh. She lets the door go, letting it swing close. It sits ajar. She crosses her arms as she turns towards him. He doesn’t wear his usual smirk, no he is cold and serious. In a way, it’s terrifying. 

“Where is it?” He asks, walking around the cabin and opening up wardrobes and cabinets. “Where did you put it?” As he walks around, there seems to be something off about him. Like he was sweating a bit, his skin slightly discoloured. Perhaps he was ill? Was he looking for some missing medication, did he think she had it? She didn’t know. 

“What-- I have no idea  _ what  _ you’re on about!” She pulls his arms away from her display cabinet filled with her glass creations. Getting between him and her things. “What are you  _ looking  _ for?” His face contorts, flush with rage. Though she’d made him angry quite easily the first time she’d met him, not to  _ this  _ level and certainly not with zero effort towards it. 

“You know  _ exactly  _ what I’m talking about, where did you put it?” He takes a fistful of her nightgown at the collar, towering over her. She is lifted up against the cabinet. The impact causes a few of her glass ornaments to topple over, some remaining on their shelves and a few dropping to the floor. Shattering at Lucio’s feet. He sounds desperate, and furious.    
For once she’s intimidated by him.   
“ _ How  _ did you even get it?” He’s so loud, voice raised but in her head it’s too much. Like he’s somehow amplifying it in her mind, or perhaps that is her magic reacting erratically to the stress. 

“Let go of me,” She grasps at his arm, nails trying to dig into metal fruitlessly. “I don’t know what you’re on about. First you storm into this place and drive all these people absolutely insane, you threaten to contact my family, and  _ now  _ you’re accusing me of being, what, a thief? Get  _ out  _ of my  _ home _ . You have threatened me enough in my own  _ hou _ \--” 

“Eos?” The front door creaks as it slowly opens, another tall figure emerging. Lucio drops Eos to her feet, the glass shards cutting her skin as she steps on them. The pain makes her want to shout, or scream, but she swallows it.

“Julian,” Lucio says, his usual smirk returning as he walks towards the door. Julian ignores him, looking over the thrown open cabinets and the glass on the ground. Eos’ state of undress. “Can you believe the state of this place? Someone completely ransacked this hovel, I heard our dear local magician shouting for help of course but by the time I got here the culprit had left. Likely terrified of what I’d do to them,” He puffs out his chest, proud of a false achievement. Eos opened her mouth, stepping forward to correct and expose him. But the look he cast back at her spoke volumes. She kept quiet.

“Is that so,” The captain says, he doesn’t look terribly convinced and Eos avoids his eyes. Lucio knows something, and it’s likely his band does too. Eos has to find out what that is first, and what he’s looking for, before anything else.    
She can’t trust Julian either, for all she knows he was merely scoping the place out before Lucio arrived. 

Julian takes another look at the glass, the cabinet behind her. His brow furrows and concern colours his features when he sees the blood coming from her feet.

“Eos, you’re--”

“I need to clean this place up,” She says before Lucio can spill out more of his lie or Julian can catch on-- if he’s not part of this entire thing. “You two should go, you have a hunt don’t you?” 

Lucio seems about to protest or say something but Julian puts a hand on his shoulder and starts to walk him out. 

“She’s right, we have a lot of ground to cover today. We might get you out on the water. You’re a mermaid killing expert after all.” 

Before they leave, Lucio puts his hand on the doorframe, looking back at Eos.

“By the way, I did hear from your family again, they’ve said they’ll be coming down around the same time this  _ delightful _ ,” He says it through clenched teeth, not in anyway disguising any loathing, “Village will be having some sort of festival. Everyone will be distracted, you’ll get that privacy you wanted.” 

She says nothing, just watches them leave.

He’s given her no warning, she can’t uproot and leave in four days. There’s so much to pack, so much she would have to do, and she isn’t  _ finished  _ here.   
She doesn’t want to leave this place behind. She doesn’t want to go where Asra can’t follow. 

She closes the door behind them. The glass she sweeps up with a hand wave before she tends to the cuts on her feet. 

When she is done, she sits on her bed, head in her hands. She has spent a very long time running away. From her family, from the responsibility they thrust upon her. She runs from fate and from anything she cannot handle    
Perhaps she cannot outrun inevitability after all.    
She moves to her desk and writes a new letter.

‘ _ Dear Nadia,  _

_ I wanted to thank you for all that you have done for me since I met you.  _

_ Meeting you in Vesuvia, knowing you both as the Countess of that city and as Nadia Satrinava has been one of the greatest pleasures of my life. You have been a shining example of the kind of woman I have wanted to be. Your kindness, tenacity, and determination have been beautiful. Nadia, in every way you have been  _ beautiful _. _

_ I cannot ever repay you the hospitality you showed me, and the friendship you have given me. Your help in finding out more about that mercenary has been wonderful.  _

_ I write this to you now because this may be my last letter in which I am free to say what I please. If not my last letter in total. The inevitable has happened. My family is coming to retrieve me within a few days. But before they do, I will tell you the whole truth. _ _   
_ _ If this is the last time I can talk to you freely, then it shall be the time that I do not censor a thing. Regardless of how insane it may make me seem.  _

_ I have already told you of my close encounter with that frenzy of merfolk, what I did not tell you was who my saviour is. _ _   
_ _ Or  _ what  _ my saviour is.  _

_ His name is Asra, and he is a beautiful person. He shines like the sun when he speaks, and he has opened up my mind to possibilities involving the arcane that I could never have of thought of. He smells like cinnamon and something I cannot place but it is utterly intoxicating. _ _   
_ _ He is of the sea, Nadia. _ _   
_ _ He is of the merfolk.  _

_ I have met with him continuously since then, not once has he sang for me or raised his voice to a volume in which the natural enchantment would show it’s head. He has made me feel incredibly safe despite my initial fear and dislike towards him due to what he is.  _ _   
_ _ In fact, rather than me getting hurt, he did. _

_ He was shot by a captain visiting this port, Julian Devorak, and I am certain somehow this Lucio was involved. Either by telling him or by encouraging him to follow me. Though this may be bias, as I doubt there is anyway either could’ve known before that incident. _ _   
_ _ After this, the town, the crew, and mercenaries have gone insane. Stopping their work for hours at a time, during the night and day, to search the shore and nearby water for Asra.  _

_ In the middle of the town, Lucio cut the head off of an unrelated mermaid-- that he had already mutilated-- and the people cheered.  _

_ I asked Asra to leave, and thus far he has not been found.  _ _   
_ _ Perhaps ‘asked’ is a nice way of sugarcoating what I did. I hurt him, on purpose, with the things I said.  _

_ I just wanted him to be safe and he would not want to leave.  _

_ Just before I began to pen this letter to you, the mercenary came to my home. He searched through my things to find something. ‘ _ It _ ’ was all he said. That I had something he needed, or took something from him. I have no idea what he means, but it must be important.  _ _   
_ _ He threatened me, physically. My family’s advancement in collecting me seems to be his doing as well, as he has had some contact with them. _ _   
_ _ Now, I cannot help but wonder if this thing he was looking for is related to what he came here for in the first place. Along with his inherent dislike of me, the only magician here, and of the naturally magic-wielding merfolk. _

_ I am dreadfully sorry for keeping things from you, Nadia. You have been a dear friend, and I owe you more trust than I have shown you.  _

_ I love you, my friend. _ _   
_ _ Perhaps if you visit Firent in a few years you will find it is me greeting your arrival. I would be happy to show you the hospitality you showed me when I arrived in Vesuvia, dirty as a stray dog and just as well behaved. _

_ Your friend, _ _   
_ _ Eosphorus Dogmatikó, _

_ P.s. _ _   
_ _ Two dicks. _

When the sun is higher in the sky she will send it off and expect to see no reply, if there be one. She will likely be travelling back to Firent by then, to be trained in secret and private, and presented as a new priest of whomever her father decides. 

She can only hope, despite their differences and estrangement, Hyperion has not yet succumb to the same fate.

.

At the same time, far out of view of Portsoy, someone walks out of the ocean. Stumbling, each step more painful than the last. They fall to their feet, coughing up saltwater, chest heaving as they lay back on the ground. Blood stains and colours the sand beneath them, but they will heal. 

They grin up at the sky, because they are alive.

.

“Forgot to ask, you’re not pregnant are you?”

“I doubt it,” Eos says, bracing herself against a set of drawers as the local tailor cinches a corset around her waist. “You don’t have to do this, you know,” She grunts softly as it gets tighter. “I highly doubt I’ll be up to feeling festive when it comes around.” 

“Wouldn’t be sure about that. And nonsense,” the tailor says, finally finished with the corset and moving onto the next inconvenient piece needed. The crinoline. With some help from an assistant, the three of them get the crinoline over Eos’ head and settled. “Besides, surely there’s  _ someone  _ you’re seeking to impress, hm?” The tailor starts sifting through various swatches of fabrics, pinching a few between their fingers to keep and tossing a few others back into the wooden box they were picking them out of.  “What do you think?” 

“Not particularly fond of the crinoline, I have asthma you know” She says, looking over the selection of colours when the tailor returns to present them. Deciding on an almost black dark purple. “In all honesty, I’m…” She pauses, staying still as the tailor works around her. “I’m holding out for someone who isn’t here.” 

“Everyone says that, it’s coming back you know,” The tailor talks around a mouthful of pins, their assistant helping them form a dress around Eos.“Oh? The one you’re always sending letters to, eh?”

“One of them, yes,” Not technically a lie, she had sent  _ one  _ letter to Asra. Mind that’d been via glass eagle, the only real option. “And no, the crinoline is not coming back.”   
One for the privacy and two because such creations could only work short distances anyway 

“Didn’t realise our magician was a taken woman, haven’t seen you wear a ring, dear.” Pink fills Eos’ cheeks at the implication. If she  _ were  _ married that might help her be rid of some of her problems. 

“I don’t have one, I’m- I’m not engaged or married. Besotted I suppose works, especially considering the nature and circumstances of our… relationship.” She plays with her nails. The risk had expedated them, she realised that much. It was very quick, so much happening in such little time. Yet her heart still swelled when she thought on him. She missed him.   
She had to harden her heart. Regardless of what happened, she doubted she would see him again. Even if she got the chance, what she had said was… shameful for her. She couldn’t do it.

“Together long then?”

“Not long at all, no.” She brings her hand up to the locket he’d given her so long ago, when she left that cave and he’d simply given her whatever he had on hand. She’d been wearing it nonstop since she’d seen him last. She’d still yet to be able to open it. “A few months. Four at the least..”

They continue to chat, shifting to more small talk and questions about the dress rather than more personal matters. The fitting is finished within a few hours, and the construction of the dress well underway. 

“You write to that sweetheart of yours that the men here are going to be all over you in this dress!” The tailor calls after her when she starts to leave. Eos looks back at them, hand raised in a wave.

“I won’t! Thanks, bye!” Eos leaves quickly, just barely sidestepping around someone else, wearing their hat low and a scarf wrapped around the lower part of their face, walking into the tailor’s. 

The stranger lowers their scarf when they’re inside, taking of their hat and holding it to their chest. Familiar purple eyes standing out against brown skin. 

“We can’t take walk in’s at the moment,” The tailor says, already busying themselves with Eos’ gown for the upcoming festival. “We’ve got an event in but a few days, you see and--”

“I’m sorry for the trouble,” Asra says, taking a few steps more into the building, a golden choker glinting in the lantern light. “I am more than willing to pay you handsomely for your time. I’ve come to visit someone, you see, as a surprise when your festival is happening, but I completely forgot to pack any formal clothes.” He reaches into the pocket of the brown pants he’s wearing, pulling out an expensive looking, pearl encrusted, necklace. “I do dearly want to impress her, it’s been a while.” 

The tailor takes one look at the necklace before pocketing it and pulling a stool out from under a table. 

“Step up here, and keep still. What do you have in mind?” 

It’s impressive, really, how Asra manages to avoid Eos’ notice. Then again, it wasn’t as though she expected him to walk right by her. Keeping his face largely hidden was helpful as well.

After the fitting with the local tailor, Asra sneaks away from the village. Setting himself up under a willow tree and rubs at the choker around his neck.   
He’d of enjoyed being warned about the consequences of using it, the immense pain that came with every footstep and the branding on his chest. Whenever his feet touched the ground, it was as though it were made of hot coals and sharp shards of glass.   
At least he now knew what hot coals were. Keeping warm had proven interesting these past few nights, a few small burns still dotted his hands. But it was exhilarating, to walk under the sun and see things he never would have seen before all of this.

If he’d had much choice, he’d of gone straight to Eos. Yet the pain in his newly formed feet had kept him restricted and hobbled. Instead he’d kept hidden, posing as a resting traveller when spotted.

When he could withstand the pain in his legs for longer periods of time, he spied on the village. Watched Eos at the kilns from a distance, saw for himself the products of the villager’s hunt for him.    
Now, with his tolerance for the sharp pains that ran up his legs with each step increased, he could reveal himself. 

He closes his eyes, smiling.

“There soon.”

Eos gets her chance to see Asra the day of the village’s festival. It is, by no means, a particularly fancy event especially with how much of a toll their manhunt has taken. 

She is with the tailor early in the morning to get the help she needs to get into the dress. Late morning anyway. She’d been queasy when she woke up and spent a quarter of the morning with her head in a bucket. She was sure it was the nerves, but it’d been like that for weeks now. Corset cinched, the crinoline pulled on-- she hated it, how could she run with it on? Let alone  _ breathe _ \-- and the dress over the top of it all.   
She curls her hair with hot iron and paints her lips black rather than her usual purple. The colour sapped out.   
She’s already heard of the approaching carriage, that at some point that day she’ll be addressed and taken back to Firent. 

She has come no closer to solving the mystery of  _ why  _ Lucio is at the village, has come no closer to saving Asra.    
No closer to seeing him again. 

“You look miserable, dear,” The tailor says, an odd glint in her eye as she pins the last flower to the bodice. Eos looks at herself in the polished silver mirror, the collar hangs low at her shoulders. The dress waistline at just where her rib cage ends rather than at her hips. The lace is thin and golden to stand out against the dark purple. It is a beautiful dress, especially for one made in but a few days. “It’s a party, cheer up.”

“You ought to go to a city, you know,” Eos says, pinning fresh flowers into her curls. “You’d have coin pouring in if you did.”

“Then who would stitch up the clothes of the people here? Besides, I like the quiet.” The tailor, smooths down the silk skirt. “Not that it’s very quiet these days, everyone off hunting for some mermaid like it’ll solve every problem here. There’ll always be more mermaids.” Eos has nothing to say to that, merely finishing pinning the flowers into her hair. “You look wonderful, now smile. You never know who might appreciate seeing such a pretty face.”

“I’m sorry, I just don’t see much to smile about right now,” She tucks the locket Asra gave her into the bodice of the dress. “You also stuck me into a corset. It’s made me very sad.” 

“You’ll learn to love it,” They brush off the comment on the corset and push her towards the door. “Now, out! I’ve much to do, come back later if you don’t find someone to help you out of that.” She stumbles as she is shoved out the door but regains composure quickly enough. Smoothing the skirt down once again, she heads out into the dancing and laughing crowds. Avoiding the eye of the mercenaries and trying to keep her head low. 

She doesn’t get close enough to the dancers to be asked, entirely on purpose, to dance. But she does indulge in some of the alcohol spread throughout the area on table, sipping slowly at something rather sweet and bubbly. 

Eos pauses and hides behind a decorated arch, eyes half closed as she merely listens and smiles to the people before her dancing and enjoying themselves. It is, of course, a day commemorating some great harvest or anniversary of some local legend. 

If she could enjoy the day, she would. 

She reaches into her impossible pouch, pulling out a small glass bird and piece of parchment. Carefully tying it to the bird, she kisses the top of it. 

“To Asra, if you’d please,” She whispers to it and blows gently. The bird wakes up, and like every other time cracks slightly and flies off. What catches her attention, however, is that it does not head for the ocean. She has no time to investigate it before a voice calls out her name. One very familiar voice.

“Eosphorus.” 

She turns, and it is an old childhood guard. Always escorting her about her about the city of Firent, or outside of it. Practically omniscient to her and her brother’s methods of mischief making, and always foiling their more disastrous plans.   
Once, perhaps, considered a friend before Eos learned to despise the reality of her situation and fled with her brother alongside of her.   
Hyperion had always been disillusioned to their escorts and confinements. But Eos could always be persuaded with pretty words. 

Eos looks down, sighing softly before she turns to face the owner of the voice.    
Really, he has barely changed. 

His armor has not changed, his facial hair has become a well trimmed beard and there’s a new scar on his face.   
Her heart lurches, was that an incident during training or had someone attacked her childhood home? 

“Jayesh,” She says, voice cold. 

“You know you need to come home now,” He steps towards her, impassive as always. “It’s time this foolishness came to an end. Your family wants you back.”

“That just encourages me to try and run away honestly.” He doesn’t react to her words, just nods in the direction behind her and towards the carriage visible on the outskirts of the village.    
The windows had iron bars.

He gestures for her to go to him, hand on the pommel of his sword. She takes one step towards him, two steps, then she bolts in the other direction.

She may be in an utterly  _ ridiculous  _ gown and in heels of an uncomfortable height, but if there is one thing Eos can do, it is run. You do not spend your entire adulthood and part of your childhood running from your pre-decided fate and not get good at it. 

She ducks under people holding plates of food, jumps over children playing in the street and over dogs that are begging for scraps. Heading right for the thickest crowd in the area. Any moment spent in freedom is well spent, even if by the end of the day she will be caught it does not need be  _ now. _ Besides, this is fun. 

“ _ Grab her before she gets away! _ ” The voice of her old guard calls out, likely to whomever else had been brought along for when she inevitably did this. The realisation of that makes her laugh. Very much a bad decision as the combination of running, the corset, and the cold weather is wreaking havoc on her lungs. She starts to pant and wheeze but presses onwards like the hardheaded woman she is.   
Down to her very core they knew she would not be a willing participant in their cult shit. Down to her very core, she would make them  _ work  _ for it. 

“ _ Catch me if you can! _ ” For the seriousness of her situation, her voice is jovial. Like this is a childish game rather than a capture. She turns around, running backwards. Raising her hands up, fingers spread out, tongue sticking out and eyes crossed. Mocking every reminder of her past every step of the way. She turns back around just in time to dodge around someone in similar armor to her old guard. She pulls their sword from its sheath as she does so, throwing it at a set of targets that had been set up for games. She doesn’t get a bullseye, but it’s  _ close _ . “Oh I fuckin’ hate corsets.” 

She runs passed a gap between two houses, a hand reaches out and grasps her elbow, pulling her into the gap. At first she thinks herself caught, one fist erupting into a mess of lightning as she brings it back to hit her assailant. 

Then she sees fluffy white hair and purple eyes lit up with the light her magic produces and puts her hand out almost immediately. 

Asra is right in front of her, on  _ land _ . With legs!    
Almost immediately her eyes are welling up, she’d accepted not seeing him again but he is  _ right there _ on the very day she has to go.    
Of course the tearing up is largely from the pain in her chest and the building up of mucus in her lungs in reaction to several key factors. She doubles over, unable to get enough oxygen into her chest.

“Hey, hey, calm down, Eos--” Asra immediately begins to panic, turning her back towards the alley entry and kneeling in front of her. His hands lifting her head up to try and look her in the eyes.   
She really wishes this reunion were more emotional rather than life threatening.    
“Shh, shh,” He says, as the wheezing gets worse, he presses his hand to her chest. The heel of his palm against her sternum and his fingers against her throat, his hand glows as she goes down to her knees. She feels his magic sink into her skin, relaxing her airways so she can breathe.

“Asra,” She chokes out. The last meeting they had flashes through her mind, the hurt in his face and her hasty decision to lie to try and get her way. She grabs fistfuls of his dress, as though he might disappear before her eyes and her chance to just  _ apologise  _ will be lost. Her attention is immediately distracted from her attack and to more important matters.“I-  _ Asra--  _ Wait you have legs--” 

“Shh,” He presses a finger to her lips, eyes on the entryway to the miniature alley. She gives him a look and stands up with him. “Put this on.” He takes her left hand from the front of his dress, slipping something onto one of her fingers before kissing her. His hands on either side of her head. Her left hand now moving to his hip. It feels  _ good  _ to be close to him again, to feel his body against her own and to taste him on her tongue. She almost forgets that she is running until a hand on her shoulder yanks the two of them apart. 

“At first you run and now you are showing  _ blatant  _ disrespect towards our own beliefs--” Her old childhood guard starts, his grip on her shoulder so tight that it is painful. She has a feeling her shoulder will end up actually bruised. 

“What are you  _ doing _ ,” Asra’s voice is cold as he steps in-- she needs to know about this leg thing--, forcing her old guard’s hand off of her and pulling Eos behind him, “To my  _ fiancée? _ ”    
Eos is unimpressed by this claim and about to question it before she remembers one of their previous conversations.    
_ ‘If we get engaged to someone who is not a priest or in training, we forfeit our right to any command over the city.’ _ _   
_ She supposed Asra must have kept it in mind all this time. She clings to the back of his dress, more shame ripping through her. He had thought so  _ much  _ of her and she’d repaid that with harsh words in some attempt to protect him. Yet he’d been fine on his own regardless. 

‘ _ Fuck, I’m a bitch, _ ’ She thinks, watching the composure in her old guard’s face completely disintegrate. The anger, the shock at her faux audacity, and disgust on display for the two of them to see. 

“What did you say?” Her old guard’s voice holds barely contained rage, he’d come all the way from Firent to this place and now it was possibly all for naught. Asra’s arm reaches back and wraps around her waist, tucking her into his side. For all her guilt, she finds it awfully easy to melt into him. 

She’s going to need a nap later. Just to deal with all of this emotionally. 

“We’re engaged, and I would appreciate it if you wouldn’t manhandle her. I’m sure she would too,” He squeezes her waist, and in turn she winks at her old guard. Seeing his plans so easily derailed was cathartic in some way. She could get used to this;  In more ways than one. Her thumb rubs against the ring Asra had slipped onto her finger. Where had he even gotten this?

Probably some dead person’s finger.

“She is an heir to the house of  _ Dogmatikó _ , not just any ordinary commoner can claim marriage to--” There’s a vein bulging in his forehead and Eos almost feels sorry for him. Failure was hardly accepted by her father, but she didn’t feel  _ that  _ bad.

“My fiance is hardly ordinary,” Eos says, and she isn’t wrong considering her ‘fiance’ is supposed to be part fish. “And it is hardly up to my family anymore who I bed, not that it ever was their business. You ought go home, I’m sure my father is eager for some news.” She keeps her voice even, soft perhaps. That seems annoy him more than blatant gloating would. He raises an armored finger up to her face, expression still furious.

“There’s more than one way to end an engagement, child,” He whispers to her. A blatant threat, most likely on Asra’s life. 

So she grabs his arm and electrocutes him. He convulses and falls to the ground when the electricity flows from her hands and into his body.

“Why didn’t you do that in the first place?” Asra asks, looking at her incredulously.

“And then what? He’d get back up later and come after me agai-- We don’t have time for this.” She grabs Asra’s hand and runs, whether he’ll get up later and search for her or return home isn’t her business right now.   
No, it was figuring out how Asra was  _ here _ . 

It didn’t take long until they found a corner to hide around. Eos leaning against the wall to give herself a moment to breathe. Corsets were not made for exercise of any kind, they truly were inconvenient for her.   
Her breathing was more like heavily panting and clutching at her chest, but it still counted as air going into her lungs so she was fine with that. 

Asra kneels on the ground, taking her hands in his and looking up with his concerned puppy-dog eyes. It broke her heart. She wanted him to be angry at her, to demand the apology he was owed.   
He deserved to lash out. 

She drops to her knees not too soon after, wrapping her arms around him tightly. Clinging to him as though he was smoke and would merely escape her grip. He brings his arms just as tight around her.    
She does not cry.   
She thought she  _ might  _ cry, but the tears don’t come. She just buries her face into his shoulder. When she parts from him, she cups his face in her hands. As though looking for  _ something _ , an answer, to ensure he isn’t hurt.   
She’d planned some long apology, to let him know how much she adores him.

“I’m sorry,” She simply says, her hands drop away from his face and fall to rest on her lap. She cannot remember the extent or the words of the things she’d wished to say to him if she ever saw him again. “I was an asshole.”

“You were,” He laughs for a moment, rubbing the back of his neck with a hand before his expression becomes serious again. “You really…”

“I know,” She says when he trails off, linking her fingers together to give her hands something to do. “I wasn’t kind when I should’ve been. My fear for you does not excuse what I said, I do love you, Asra, though I understand if that is--” 

“I love you too.”

She blinks hard in surprise. He is quick to forgive.    
He kisses her then, soft and gentle. He parts and pulls a sigh from her lips when he does.   
Then she remembers the leg thing. With the apology out of the way, she can get to the real next issue.

“So… Can we talk about the… You being very suddenly human, and on land where the people who want to kill you are?” She raises an eyebrow at him, reverting back to the unimpressed state she’d been when he’d claimed them as engaged. “Also, we will have to say we’re engaged for as long as  _ he _ is around, and Lucio too if he hears.” She’d never intended to get engaged, even to pretend to be, but she supposes there are  _ worse  _ people to be engaged to.   
She knows fully well she enjoys in deep inside. 

“I don’t think I’ll, aha, mind it,” He smirks at her, and she’s distinctly reminded of a cat for some reason. Then he scratches the side of his neck, subconsciously avoiding the area where his gills would’ve been. “The human thing, ah, yes. Hm.” 

“Yes, that thing. I’m very eager to find out how this… Happened.”

“I… discovered an ancient spell that allows for this transformation,” He doesn’t look at her directly, merely rubs at the choker around his neck. “I needed to see you again, I needed to be able to be here for you.” 

She looks down, had she put that idea into his head herself?    
She holds out her hand to him and stands up, waiting for him to take it.

“Come on, I need something to drink and you look like you need something to eat.” No alcohol for newly human Asra. She had no idea how he would even react to it. He takes her hand, fingers linking together. When he stands, he stumbles and winces, knees almost buckling. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine, ah, cramping I think, don’t worry.” He smiles at her, she’s worried but a cramp will ease out in no time. “Come on, I want to see where you’ve been living.” 

For the most part the rest of the festival passes without incident. The Firent guard lingers, always in the corner of Eos’ eye, but she puts them out of her mind. They are watching for a reason.    
She also notes that Lucio is missing from the celebration. She’d expected it to be something he’d be interested in, where he could boast and strut around like a peacock. Yet she hasn’t seen hide nor hair of him yet. She can’t relax until she sees every enemy in front of her, even with Asra’s arm around her waist and his voice in her ear. 

“Dance with me,” Asra says, stepping in front of her and holding out his hand, palm up. His back to the dancing crowd, bowed at the waist he grins up at her. She’s surprised of course. As far as she knows, he should be horrendous at dancing. 

“And have you step on my toes until they fall off?” She smiles and shakes her head slightly, she hasn’t danced in a very long time regardless. 

“Come on, it’ll be fun,” He continues to insist, simply taking her hand and dragging her towards the crowd. With a sigh she follows after him. It’s just  _ one  _ dance. 

Asra glances around at the couples surrounding them, quickly adopting the positions they appear to be using. The people around them twisted and twirled, inner thighs up to hips, twirling away to be caught by the hand and pulled back in. Complicated. Asra looked excited about it.

“I don’t think my dress is particularly made for a dance like this,” She murmurs, inwardly cursing that tailor and their obsession with the crinoline. “But, if you’re sure, let’s fuck shit up.”

Eos was right, the dress  _ wasn’t  _ made for that style of dance, and Asra was hardly even a beginner in it. Despite the fumbling and stepping on toes, Eos finds herself out of breath from laughter more than anything else. Eventually stumbling out of the crowd, leaning heavily on Asra, as she laughs her guts out. Asra is just as out of breath, eyes bright and hardly acknowledging their lack of success. They slip into an alleyway, hidden from the rest of the village. She wraps her arms around his neck, his going around her waist, and he picks her up and spins her. The world is light and it is soft. It is the slightest spitting of rain in summer. 

“Eos?” 

The illusion is shattered when Julian speaks. Asra lowers her to the ground, keeping his hands to her hips as she half turned to look at the captain behind her.    
Of course, he is the only person who has seen Asra’s face besides herself when he was a mermaid. 

Her arms came down from around Asra’s neck, simply resting her hand on his chest instead as she met Julian’s eyes.

She knew he recognised him, Eos could see it on his face and it made her feel afraid. Julian’s hand went to his pistol holster. Her heart faltered for a moment. She couldn’t let Julian shoot him again, couldn’t let Asra get hurt because of her  _ again _ . 

“ _ Julian _ ,” She warns, stepping away from Asra and towards Julian instead. Her hands raised slightly. If she can calm him down, just assuage his fears then no one needed to get hurt. “Let’s just talk about this, okay?” 

“Eos, step out of the way. That  _ creature,  _ regardless of how human it looks right now, is--”

“Is a total idiot for being here,” She glances back at Asra, tilting her head for him to run. He doesn’t move, he reaches out for her. To get her away from Julian, to protect her where she is trying to protect him. “But I  _ love _ him, Julian.  _ Please.”  _

“You can’t love something like that--” She interrupts him again, she needs him to understand.

“I do, Julian,” She plants her feet, keeping firmly between Asra and Julian. “Please, let me just explain, let us just  _ talk _ about this.”

He doesn’t look entirely convinced and draws his pistol, raising it up. Yet he is hesitant. She can only hope he can see her words for truth, for the love she has for him.

“Eos, it’s okay,” Asra says, tugging at her arm to try and get her to move so that she won’t get hurt.

“He  _ saved  _ me, Julian, when you came into the port.  _ He  _ saved me.” She pulls her hands to her chest, begging him and praying to every god she left behind that he will just  _ listen _ .    
His pistol starts to lower, some realisation coming over his face. Relief floods through her. Perhaps this way the three of them can talk, come to an understanding and then figure out what Lucio was doing. She was on a  _ roll  _ today, if she can get this to work then it should be smooth sailing.

Julian holsters the gun again, hands crossing over his chest. He glares at Asra but nods.

“Alright, I’ll hear you out, but…” He trails off and Eos hears the warning well enough. She steps back and takes Asra’s hand. 

They head for Eos’ cabin while the festival distracts the rest of the village, soon sitting around the table in the kitchenette. Mugs of some steaming sweet drink Eos always had imported from Firent sat in front of them all but no one was interested in drinking it. 

“So, how did this… happen?” Julian asks, gesturing between the two of them. Eos and Asra explain the events of the storm, of their continuous meeting up, and Eos reveals the truth of Lucio’s visit. Asra’s demeanor immediately goes cold, furious and Julian grows ever more serious.

“I figured it was something like that, but you didn’t seem to trust me so I wasn’t sure what to do, though now I know why you didn’t- don’t trust me,” Julian leans back in the chair, rubbing his chin and jaw with a hand. “Before I saw the two of you, Lucio told me I might find out the cause of the odd weather if I followed you. When Lucio found out about… Asra he said that he must’ve been enchanting you to cause storms and still winds. I kept thinking it was strange, how he must’ve known yet hadn’t said it outright before or done anything.”

“You’ve heard what Lucio claims to be here for right? Do you have any idea what it  _ is  _ that he’s looking for?” 

Julian shakes his head at the question, leaning back onto the table. He’s animated at least. 

“No, not really. I’ve heard him muttering something being ‘taken’ recently. This might be the thing he’s been looking for. But nothing about what it is, or why he’s looking for it.” 

The three of them sit quietly for a few minutes. Asra rubbing nervously at the choker around his neck, the engravings almost glowed in the dull lantern light.

“He has journals,” Julian cautiously says, “If we can get into the bar and into where he’s been staying then maybe we can find out what he knows. Or what he’s written down. We’d just need to distract him and keep him from entering his rooms before whoever is looking for the journal gets out.” 

“We’d get one shot at this, once the journal’s been taken he’ll know someone’s either onto him or a thief with bad taste,” Asra tents his fingers, leaning closer to the other two. “It’d be best that he sees you two and I go to take the journal. He’ll suspect Eos outright and having doubt cast on Julian won’t be helpful for us. He might just mistake me for a villager whose face he just didn’t notice earlier.” 

“Are you up to that?” Eos puts a hand on Asra’s knee, concern dominates her face. He holds onto her hand, linking their fingers. He smiles and nods, kissing her forehead.

“Then it’s settled, we know what we’re doing. We best act before this festival ends. The bar will be empty with all the customers outside, all we need to do is find Lucio so Eos and I can distract him.” Julian digs through his pockets, soon producing a piece of charcoal and paper. He draws a fairly good floorplan of the bar and it’s upper floor. “Lucio’s room is here, the leftmost room facing towards the beach. Somewhere in there should be his journal, hopefully on or near a desk of some kind.” Asra nods, looking over the floorplan a bit closer to commit it to memory. 

“Alright, when you’ve got the journal come back here and keep the lanterns off. We’ll come back here later in the night so we can look over it together. Once we figure out what Lucio’s plan is, then we can figure out how to get him out of this town.” Then Asra will be safe and the town will hopefully stop being so murder-happy. Eos stands up, the other two standing with her. Julian and Eos headed out of the cabin first, Asra following after a couple of minutes. 

It seems that Lucio decided to the join the party after all, it wasn’t hard for Eos and Julian to spot his boasting once they re-entered the festival area. The two split up, making their own way towards him.

“So that was how I had saved the court of Vesuvia from…” Lucio kept talking, but Eos was already tired of hearing claims that had no basis in reality. Eos already knew full well Vesuvia’s court had no idea who he  _ was _ , let alone had been saved by him.

“Is that the same time you supposedly slept with the Countess Nadia?” She calls out from the crowd, arms crossed under her breasts. “What I heard is that you’ve never been there at all, ‘least according to the actual  _ Countess _ . You make quite a unmemorable impression, Lucio.” 

The crowd began to murmur around her, some of them frowning at her for ruining the story they were being told and others frowning at Lucio for telling a story that apparently wasn’t true. Lucio looked surprised to see her, then utterly furious before he tried to smooth his face back over making it looked more strained than anything.

“Eos! What a  _ surprise _ for you to be here, I’d expected you to be meeting with your family right now. They did come all this way.”

“I hate my family everyone knows that,” She says calmly looking up at him before shouting could be heard from the direction of the beach. “Besides, who would give up the chance to come listen to your tall tales? Why don’t you tell the one where you supposedly slept with my best friend again? I need to write it down so I can tell her exactly what you said. Nadia was  _ quite  _ intrigued by the story.” 

Lucio’s jaw clenches further, more of that anger showing through his thin mask.

“ _ It’s the creature,” _ Voices called out from the beach, “ _ It’s come for us, it’s the creature! _ ” Lucio grinned at Eos, her face going pale, he heads for the beach but stops to say something to her before he goes charging off. 

“How’s the lover boy?” she says nothing, just stares straight ahead as Lucio heads towards the beach. As the rest of the crowd rushes passed her to follow him, she smiles. 

“That your doing?” She says, half turning towards Julian who merely grinned and shrugged in response. 

“More or less, shall we meet up with your boy?”

“Not yet, let’s go to the beach,” She gestures for him to lead and the two run for the beach. Though Eos adopts more of a mild jog. Eos adopting an appropriately distraught expression. Julian joins the ‘search’ for Asra and Eos entertains herself by trying to mislead certain parties of searchers. In general the two are loud and attention seeking. 

There are times that they come together again, Julian pretending to try talking to her about what she might know and she pretends to refuse.   
Sometimes, it becomes off set with her vomiting around a corner where no one can see.

“Eos--” Julian starts, putting a hand on her shoulder, she can tell he’s concerned and she hates it.

“Not the time, Julian,” Eos spits out some remaining vomit, wiping her mouth on a handkerchief she pulls out of her pocket. 

“I was trained to be a doctor, you know, I think I can spot when someone’s doing alright and when they’re not.”   
She pauses, standing up straight and turning towards him. Crossing her arms and hunching her shoulders as though that’ll end the conversation faster.    
“How long has it been going on--”

“I know that I’m pregnant, let’s not start.”

Julian seems about to say more before shouting is heard further along the beach, looking at each other before sprinting down towards the source.   
“We’re talking about this later,” Julian says as they run.

“The fuck we are.”

A mermaid is pulled from the water after a few hours of searching. It small. Barely the size of someone’s shin. Determined not to be the creature they seek, they slit the creature’s throat anyway and dump it back into the ocean.   
Eos knows they couldn’t have done anything, they’d of thought her enchanted still. 

“They were barely the size of a child,” She whispers to Julian, disgust clear in her voice. It could’ve  _ been  _ a child for all she knew. 

“It was just a mermaid, they’re dangerous things.” 

“So are people, as shown by this rabid mob. Don’t be an ass,” Eos shakes her head, trying to keep all the alcohol she’d drunk that night in her stomach by pushing the mermaid out of her mind as she, with all the others, walked back to the village. The drinking of wine and beer increases after the slaughter, and amidst the drunkards Eos and Julian slip away. 

“Asra?” Eos whispers into the darkness of the cabin, her hand lighting up with magic to try and find him.

“Right here,” his voice sounded from the table they’d met at last. Eos gestures and draws the curtains all closed, Julian and Eos taking seats on either side of Asra. Two leather bound books sat on the table in front of them. One was plain, brown. The other decorated with gold details that reminded Eos of the sea. 

“There’s two, I didn’t take Lucio for someone who was so literate,” Eos takes the plain journal and slides it towards her. Flipping the cover over to look inside. “This is going to take a while isn’t it?” 

“Probably,” Julian takes the other journal and starts flipping through it. “Best get through what we can.” 

Within an hour and a half Eos passes out, rather exhausted from her day. Her head lays on Asra’s lap as he continues reading through the journal where she left off. The only sound is the soft breathing from Eos and the flipping of pages. 

“You have it don’t you?” Julian asks from the table, looking down at the journal on the table. He hadn’t flipped a page in a while. Asra pauses, keeping his finger in the journal to save his place in it.

“What do you mean?” He says carefully, stroking Eos’ hair in slow motions. She stirred beneath his hand, cuddling up closer to him. Asleep, or appearing to be.

“What Lucio is looking for, ‘a boon from the devil’, activated by magic,” Julian holds up the journal. A sketch inside detailing a symbols that looked extremely similar to the ones around Asra’s neck. He swallows hard, remembering the descent down to the ocean floor to get the choker.    
The clawed hand that pushed through his chest to take some metaphysical representation of half of his heart from him in payment. 

“I don’t know what--”

“Don’t,” Julian holds up a hand and puts the book down again. “Are you going to tell her?” 

Asra looks down at Eos. The hair that cascades over his lap and even further, the curve in her cheekbone, how she presses her face into his stomach. The memory of her clutching him earlier flashes across his mind, of her bare legs and her seated above him. Her laughing on the beach as she explains the issues of certain arcane mathematical equations. 

“I can’t,” he says, running his fingers through her hair. “I need this, she needs this.” 

“She might find out all on her own, you know,” Julian warns, closing the journal after folding the corner of a page. “That might be worse in the long run. Especially since she’s--”

“I know. She’s not great at hiding it.” 

“Blatantly. What do you propose we say then?”

“The truth, almost all of it. Everyone thinks it’s a myth, don’t they? Let it be.”

Julian stands up, heading for the door. He’s about to open it, but turns to Asra first. 

“Make sure you’re ready to live with your choices.”    
Julian disappears out the door after that. Leaving Asra to his own devices. 

“I have to,” He whispers to himself. He puts the journal on Eos’ bedside table and picks her up, getting into the bed with her. “You’ll understand that, right?”   
Unseen, her eyes are open but the tiniest sliver, how much she heard wasn’t clear.   
He doesn’t sleep much that night, but he does keep himself curled around Eos. His heart, what remains, aches for her. He buries his face in her hair and he knows that he won’t let his choices hurt her. 

The next morning is marked with Jayesh and their barred window carriage passing by her cabin, along with her head in a bucket, Asra rubbing small circles into her back while she vomited.    
She didn’t go outside, didn’t show up at the window. Merely waited for Julian to show up at the door. From there the carriage and Jayesh endeavoured to leave the village.   
When inside, Julian and Asra exchanging a glance that goes largely unnoticed by Eos as she lays out the journals again. They all sit around the table, discussing a majority of what they’d discovered. Certain details omitted. 

“So he’s searching for some artefact that becomes whatever, or does whatever. And he thinks that someone’s already got it?” Eos leans back in her chair, running her fingers through her hair. “Obviously it being called ‘The Devil’s Boon’ is not helping it’s public relations.”

“Not in the slightest, could try renaming it to ‘Thing that becomes a thing once and once only’ but that’s a bit of a mouthful.” Julian leans against the kitchen counter, looking out the window to the somewhat busy street.

“Julian, if you ever have to name something, don’t.” Eos opens the pages of the brown journal, flipping through them quickly before putting them into a drawer to hide them. “Lucio definitely knows that his journals are missing by now, that or he’s an idiot, both are equally likely. Do we confront him?”

“We could do that, but then what happens? He knows we know? He’s the one with all the mercenaries,” Asra says, fiddling with a lock of his hair. “Maybe we could lure him away?” 

“We could kill him, that’s much faster,” Eos’ solutions are always efficient. 

“Scaring him into leaving might work, but once again, mercenaries.” 

The three of them fall silent, pondering the possibilities. Then Asra speaks up.

“He doesn’t know what it looks like, right? Eos, you could make something similar to something that it could be, right? With the kilns, then Julian could claim that he’s found me, killed me, and I had something with me...”

“Then Lucio thinks that he has what he wants…” Eos’ eyes light up, leaning towards Asra as Julian continues the line of thought.

“So he leaves and the hysteria of this village goes with him, they think Asra’s dead and Lucio thinks he has this powerful artefact.”

“I’m going to need to use the kilns at night, but I can be quiet about it, I need a copy of those symbols. Julian and Asra you need to organize how you’re going to do your faking Asra’s death thing. When I’ve got this fake artefact completed I’ll let you two know.” She’s going to need sand, and she knows exactly the type of sand she wants to use for this little project. 

She kisses Asra on the head, leaving him and Julian to sort their own plan out alone as she runs for that black beach. Want something to look like it’s from the Devil, better make it look black. This is the most hopeful she’s felt for a while, there’s a plan to actually solve some of their problems. Peace can be had. God knows she wants some peace.

She gathers plenty of sand, pouring handfuls upon handfuls into the pouch. More than she probably needs but better safe than sorry. 

She clutches the pouch to her chest, and wonders what she is going to make this fake artefact look like.   
It couldn’t be just  _ anything _ , it had to be appealing to Lucio.   
She’ll figure it out later, for now she needs to pretend like today is like any other.   
That night, she pretends to sleep and watches as Asra leaves the cabin at midnight. Without a sound she follows him.

“Have you figured your plan out, how you’re going to trick them all?” Eos asks the next day, there are dark circles under her eyes. Like she hadn’t slept. Asra nervously rubs at the choker around his neck.

“Asra intends to make a decoy of himself, of sorts, depending on how quickly Lucio hears me shouting about him and gets there he’ll see a dead ‘Asra’ with the artefact on him. Hopefully he won’t look too closely and will just take it, whatever it looks like.” Julian leans against a wall in the kitchen, hand stroking his jaw. “What do you intend to make it look like? Some seashell?”

“I was thinking a choker like Asra’s,” She says expression neutral while Asra looks stricken for a moment and even Julian looks nervous.

“Are you sure that’s such a good idea?” Julian glances to Asra, Asra avoids Eos’ eyes. “I mean, going to be awfully hard to get onto some magic’d fish isn’t it?” 

“Oh,” She taps a finger against her chin, looking at Asra from the corner of her eye. “I suppose you’re right. What about a crown then? Lucio seems like the type to want to be some kind of king.”   
There’s little more to talk about once Asra and Julian further elaborate on their plan, Julian leaving when they’re done, Asra leaves too. Having something to do but neglects to mention the details of it, even when she asks.   
Something bothers her whenever he does though. At first she thinks it is just because he is doing it without her, but even then there’s something she can’t put her finger on. 

His leaving doesn’t bother her, it’s the secrecy.    
But while he’s gone, she has time for casual things. Like grocery shopping, which she hates.

“Gone again is he?” A woman in the village says to her when she’s restocking her groceries, trying to figure out which apple she likes better out of the two identical pieces of fruit.

“Hm?” She hums, turning her head towards the woman. She was about Eos’ age, with a child on her hip and another tugging on her skirt. She’s got her own basket of produce, stocked full enough for a good sized family.

“Your… friend,” The woman says again, unwilling to say ‘partner.’ They weren’t married after all, “That white haired boy who appeared at the festival, I saw him late the other night running off, then this morning. Isn’t it  _ odd _ ?” 

“He’s a busy person, he has things he likes to do on his own,” She decides on the fruit she’s holding in her left hand and puts it in her basket after flicking the vendor a coin for it. She’ll put it in something. Maybe. “I’m not his keeper.” 

“Well, you and I are for sure cut from a different cloth, magician,” The woman says with a laugh, bumping the baby on her hip up and down. The baby is cute, Eos kind of wants to hold them. “I can’t stand not knowing where my  _ husband _ ,” Rude, why bring that up. “Is going if he disappears. My, what if he’s doing something scandalous?” 

“Then that’s the cloth you got stitched to, ma’am,” Eos says and plucks out some vegetables to examine them. She’s never been much of a fan for the odd ones grown around here, but she does want to try them all of the sudden. She puts them back, hand grazing over her lower stomach.

“You know,” The woman starts again, handing off her youngest child to the one tugging on her skirts, “I can’t help but wonder if you’re feeling alright, I’ve seen you washing out a lot of buckets recently. I was like that with my first--”

Eos leaves and heads for other stalls with less nosy neighbours.The idea other people have noticed Asra’s absences makes her feel odd in a way. That at least one is watching her close enough to analyse some very simple actions that come with what she is sure is merely a spontaneously sensitive stomach is also an odd feeling. It’s hardly their business anyway.

But, it brings the knowledge of his random disappearances to the forefront of her mind. Why  _ did  _ he leave? If it were just for Faust, he’d say, right? She knew full well it wasn’t what other people were thinking either, Asra  _ adored  _ her. She knew that very well.   
There had to be something else going on.

She folds a cloth over her groceries, walking briskly back to her cabin. She’s going to find out, even if it kills her. 

Asra has returned when she’s back, hair wet. So she smiles when she sees him, putting her basket on the table. Pressing a quick kiss to his nose before she sets about organizing her equipment to finally make their fake artefact for Lucio.

Their day goes on as normal, affectionate and soft. Hidden away from the world. Asra doesn’t venture to the village, not really. He’s no interest in it. It worries her a bit, she wants him satisfied here. Even if she’s not around, she wants him happy if he’s going to keep using this ‘spell.’ 

When night falls however, Eos doesn’t sleep.   
Not because of nausea. She just, doesn’t sleep.    
She’s going to follow Asra tonight, he must be planning to leave again soon.

And she’s right, it’s around midnight that he gets up. He kisses her hair and climbs over her to head for the door, and leaves without a second thought.   
She waits a few minutes, then follows him.   
She could’ve asked, maybe should’ve, but it has to be something  _ more _ than just leaving. He’d tell her otherwise, right?   
Right.

She follows him down towards the beach, as silent as the grave in her nightgown as she climbs over rocks. Keeping just out of sight. Eventually, Asra stops, stripping down until he was completely bare and walking into the water. She watches intently, waiting for some moment of truth.

He takes hold of the choker, and with a grunt of pain, it passes through his neck. Once the choker was off he dropped. Her eyes widen, lurching forward to go to him before she notices the tail when he resurfaces.    
He shakes his hair out of his eyes, making sure his clothes were safe on the rocks, the choker momentarily placed beside them. She tries to take a step forward, a silent step, but accidentally kicks around. Dodging out of sight before he could spot her.   
She doesn’t see him panic and dive into the water, forgetting to hide his clothes or the choker.

She waits a few minutes before peeking around the corner, then a few more until she is sure he is gone.

The choker sits upon the rocks and she swears it  _ glows _ .

She walks over slowly, cautious of getting caught. She shivers in the cold night air when she bends to pick it up. Turning it over in her hands.

Then, like a cuff, it opens. 

“This… is it,” She says in disbelief, examining the inside of the choker that had the exact symbols Lucio was looking for. “This is the  _ fucking _ artefact Lucio’s after.” She can’t even believe that he kept this from her. She glances towards the water.

Without really understanding why, she walks into the water until she is waist deep. Thumb rubbing over the symbols.   
With a deep breath she brings the choker up to her neck, hesitating a bit.

“I should just put it back--” 

The choker closes all on its own and the pain is  _ immeasurable _ .    
She bends over, fingers trying to pull the joker off while it burns her skin. She struggles for a few seconds, stumbling further into the water. A wave crashes over her head and it is as though her skin explodes. She’d scream but her mouth fills with water when she tries, all she sees is red water around her.   
Pieces of her skin slough off of her legs and arms as though she were shedding scales. Her neck splits open on both sides, the water flooding through her mouth and to her lungs spills from her neck. In other places her skin stretches and hardens, becoming discoloured. Becoming the same purple as a horrible bruise. Amidst all the blood and shed skin, she barely notices the fusion of her legs to a tail and the hardening of her nails to claws.

Does not notice, of course, until the blood and skin is washed further out to sea and Eos is left with whatever parts of her are left.   
Fins have sprouted from her back, hips, forearms, and along what was formerly her legs and has now become a tail. The patterns, though largely comprised of cooler colours, are psychedelic havoc on her eyes and she tries to focus on anything else.

Like how she is much further out to sea than she was, and how there are pieces of her skin floating around her, and how she was breathing underwater. She panics for a moment, hands going to her mouth to prevent further inhalation of water, but she keeps _ breathing _ .   
Her hands move down to her neck, to feel the gills that have formed underneath the choker. So much of her body is numb from what just happened, but she can still  _ feel _ them.

Her hands shake in the water as she continues downward, feeling the last bits of  _ human  _ skin that hadn’t come off with the rest on her new tail. The fins that formed at her hips. It’s real, she can see it and she can feel it. 

‘ _ So that is what it does, _ ’ She thinks knowing full well sound can’t travel underwater, ‘ _ I’m going to  _ kill  _ him.’ _

She brings her hands back up to the choker once again, feeling along it for some form of release but finds it doesn’t even have a hinge from which it should’ve even been able to open in the first place. Her mind is brought back to the image she saw of Asra removing it, of it passing through his neck. 

‘ _ Because  _ nothing _ in life is allowed to be easy and not surrounded by deceptions, _ ’ She pulls at the choker, finding it unsurprisingly resistant to passing through her neck. ‘ _ I must have to charge it with my magic _ .  _ Great. _ ’    
She’s not eager to try that so soon, but she needs something to do or else she feels she’ll start to cry over this ridiculous situation that continues to haunt her. 

After a moment’s hesitation she starts to head for the shore, managing to emulate the way she’s seen Asra move through the water. It works to carry her through the water, though she’s sure she seems clumsy. Not that she should place much stock in some hypothetical people around her, she’s never doing this again.   
And Asra has been  _ choosing  _ to do this. Putting himself through this pain for, what? 

Her shoulders hunch, she knows full well what for.  _ Who  _ for.    
That doesn’t mean she’s not going to chew him out. If Lucio had taken any care to actually look at Asra, or if Asra were more likely to interact with the people in the village he would’ve gotten caught. They would  _ know _ and Lucio might have kill him for it. Not to mention there was no telling what all that pain was doing to him. 

It doesn’t take her long to reach the shore and pull herself back up onto the rocks where Asra had left the choker originally, along with his clothes.   
Her nightgown is soaked for sure, so she chucks it off. Leaving it lying on the rocks to dry while she waits.

Waits for what?   
For Asra to come back? For her to find it in her to remove this choker and go back to being  _ her _ ? To admit to following him? To not  _ trusting  _ him?    
She’s not going to shy away from it. Eos had to be that honest.

She waits a few hours, growing cold from the night air. There’s an uncomfortable feeling in her chest forming. But her nightgown has dried so she pulls it on.    
Not long after she sees the white hair of Asra emerge from the water, his face is shocked, then shame mixes in with concern before he starts closing off. But she notes the way he looks at her, the netting of skin over the tail and the colouration. There’s something in his face she can’t place, but she doesn’t like it.

She keeps her eyes on him as she brings her hands to the choker, the choker and her hands crackle with electricity as she grips onto it and rips it through her neck.   
She understands then, from the fear on Asra’s face and the  _ amount  _ of pain that he didn’t show when he did this, that this artefact was not made for human use. She almost wishes Lucio had found it before Asra so he could feel this.    
The tail splits into legs, blood seeping over the rocks below her and electricity runs over her skint too bright to look at as every other  _ merfolk  _ aspect disappears. Leaving Eos sitting there with a red and white nightgown.

There’s cuts, deep ones, over her legs that replicate the patterns on the tail she’d had. Smaller ones to represent scales. Cuts on the side of her neck where the gills were and it is  _ painful _ , tears spring to her eyes but she  _ won’t  _ cry.

She is sick of her own tears. But it feels like the worst thing she’ll ever experience.

She stands, hands gripping onto taller rocks around her so that she could, blood weeps down her legs. She places the choker on top of Asra’s clothes and she starts to walk home. She hears him call her name, and it is musical as all merfolk voices are but the pain cuts through the cloudiness it forms.

She keeps walking down the beach, staining sand and she is almost within sight of the village, stumbling all the way, by the time Asra catches up with her. He grabs her hand, his other arm going to her waist when she almost falls.

“Eos, Eos, just wait--”

“Wait for  _ what _ ?” She’s unsteady on her feet but that doesn’t mean she can’t express verbally how upset she is. “Wait for you to actually tell me what you’re  _ putting  _ yourself through?” That’s her main complaint really. Just that she  _ didn’t know _ , she could have understood then. “For you to explain that  _ you  _ had the very aptly named artefact Lucio was looking for, and by using it were risking him finding  _ out _ ?” She tries to push him back but he catches her hands, he’s quiet. “You could’ve just told me, you could’ve told me what you were  _ going  _ through.”

“I didn’t tell you because you would’ve done this,” He snaps, grip on her wrists tightening. “Because you would’ve done this, and you would’ve done what you did the last time you tried to protect me by hurting us both.” He lets go of one of her hands, feeling along the symbols on the choker. “I’m not just going to wait in the ocean for you to get hurt by someone and come to me about it, I’m going to  _ be  _ there even if you don’t like it.”

“Then fucking tell me before you go ahead and get something called ‘ _ The Devil’s Boon _ ’ to do it!” She shouts, ripping her other hand out of his grip. “Actually talk to me about it, tell me about what you’re doing to yourself because you’re clearly  _ hurting _ yourself, Asra.”

“Like  _ you’re  _ one to be saying that.  _ Talk _ to you, like you did to me when you tried to push me away?” He glares at her, clenching his hands and trying to compose himself before he speaks again. “I did what I had to do to be here with you, isn’t that enough?”

“What is that supposed to mean? It’s--” She coughs, shaking her head before continuing, “It’s ridiculous is what it is,” She runs her hands through her still wet hair, “Asra, I love you. I want you to be part of my life, and I want to be part of yours. But how can I do that when you’re hiding something as serious as this from me? I want you to  _ trust  _ me.”

“Like you trusted me? Eos, I  _ do  _ trust you, I-” He takes a deep breath, taking hold of her forearms. “I trust you, but I needed to do this.”

“Well I just wish you’d said that before you started running off so I, at least, had the chance to understand, Asra,” She coughs again, blinking quickly to dispel any oncoming tears. “I don’t mind the leaving, I would’ve just liked to know the reason.” He wraps his arms around her, he was the warmest thing there and she wouldn’t have pushed him away even if she wanted to.

“I know,” He says and rubs her back when her coughing starts again because it  _ always  _ does. “I know. Come on, you’ll make yourself sick again.” He guides her back towards the cabin, both still upset in their own ways but calmed. The air, at the least, began to clear between them. 

He lights the fire when they reach the cabin, convinces her to wrap herself in blankets when she  _ insists  _ she is fine. He wraps her legs in bandages, making sure they’re clean.

“I’m sorry,” She says as he completes the set of bandages around one of her calves. “I should’ve trusted you.” 

“I know,” He says and she flicks his ear, with a grin he kisses the top of her knee, “You’re fine, love.” He lifts up her leg slowly, beginning to wrap up her thigh in bandages. “You should’ve been more careful, you’re so sick--”

“I am always sick, and yet look at what I do for a living,” She shrugs, pulling her blankets tighter around her. “You shouldn’t have to deal with this, you should be in the ocean.”

“You know that you’re sicker than normal. You’ve told me about your breathing, but the vomiting?” He shakes his head slightly, “You need me, so I’m going to be here, Eos,” He’s careful and methodical with the wrapping. It hurts, but not as much as it could. 

“It’s nothing, Asra, it’ll pass soon, I’m sure,” She doesn’t look at him until he pushes her down onto the bed, forearm resting above her head and his other hand on her abdomen. Fingers gently pressing against the beginnings of a bump.

“We just talked about trust, Eos, let’s not get hypocritical here.”

“It shouldn’t have shown this fast, Asra, it doesn’t make  _ sense _ . It’s too fast.” 

“A lot of things don’t.”

He kisses her, and for a while they don’t talk of it again.

It’s a few days after that Eos manages to forge the fake artefact, splitting one of her glass pieces over it to transfer the magical charge into it. If Lucio’s able to sense any magic whatsoever, it’ll hopefully convince him further.

Before Julian and Asra leave to enact their plan, the fake artefact in a cloth bag, Eos spends a quiet morning with Asra. 

“You’re going to be careful, right?” She whispers to him, her hand stroking his head laid on her chest. 

“I promise, everything will be fine,” He presses a kiss to her jaw but it does little to calm her down. There’s only one way to find out if it’ll work. She just needs to let them do it. 

“Okay,” She sits up slightly, kissing Asra when he lifts himself up in turn. Asra gets onto his hands and knees above her. Biting her bottom lip carefully and watching it snap back to place when he lets go. Eos pulls him right back in for another kiss, teeth clashing together for a moment. His hands move to her hips, holding her as he grinds against her. 

Eos grips onto Asra’s shirt, keeping him from pulling away from her. She breathes out hard through her nose, soon pressing her lips to his jaw then his neck. One hand wanders up her nightgown. Hand firm against her breast, his thumb brushing over her hardening nipple. She sighs against his skin. He pinches the nipple, rolling it between his fingers. 

“Beautiful,” He says into her ear and slowly pushing the entire nightgown up and over her head. She lays back and he kisses her chest, from the top of her sternum to suck on her tit. Her hands run through his hair, gently tugging on it. “Radiant, most skilled woman I’ve,” He says against her skin, kisses pressed to her skin, “Ever met.”    
She feels him start to grow hard against her, and though she’d  _ adore  _ to fuck the morning of their attempt to trick Lucio, she also enjoys the idea of Asra thinking of fucking her throughout it all.

She nips at his neck before pulling back from him, hair forming a halo around her head as she lays back on the pillow with a smile.

“You should go meet with Julian,” She says, voice light and full of innocence. “You don’t want to be late.” 

“You’re the worst,” He says with a grin on his face, kissing her again before he gets off of her. She can see the slight bulging in his pants and makes her admiration of it obvious as she slips her nightgown back on. She plans to stay in bed today. “I’ll see you later.”

“You better,” She murmurs and watches him leave. Slipping out of the cabin and head unseen by the village towards the sea. He will hide, reverse his supposed spell and do what he can.

Of course, this spell seems to be quite miraculous. To be found so quickly and conveniently. 

She slips off of the bed, gathering Lucio’s journals and flicking through them until she finds the sketching of the symbols that should be found on this artefact he’s looking for.   
When she was forging the fake one, she couldn’t help but feel like there was something familiar about them. Tracing her fingers over them now she still can’t place it.

“Maybe I heard something of it back in Firent…” She whispers to herself, but shakes her head regardless. It was rare for there to be any tomes or drawings of things not directly relating to deities that were actively worshipped. The Devil, of course, was one that was taboo to really even think about. “It’ll come to me later.”    
She worries though.   
She’s certain she’s seen them.

.

“Are you ready?” Julian asks. Asra had already gotten into the water, tail glinting in the light that came through the water. He held onto the bag holding the fake artefact Eos had made, having of stashed the real thing away with Faust back home. She’d keep a hold of it, make sure that it didn’t go anywhere.

“Ready as I can be, are you sure you can convince him to believe this?”

“Believe me, I can be  _ quite  _ the convincing actor.”

.

“ _ Lucio _ ,” Julian shouted, heading to shore in a small dingy that carried what looked like a dead mermaid with a black glass crown on its head. “ _ Lucio, I’ve caught the beast! _ ” The dinghy bumped up against the shore, Julian jumped out to push it onto the beach as Lucio approached. Something akin to relief or hope on his face, covered by a thin veneer of smug self assurance. 

“Well, look at that, you did,” Lucio bends over the mermaid. Hands soon greedily plucking the black crown from white locks, “Look at this old thing, why would it want this?” He turned it this way and that, looking at it closely.

“I don’t know, I don’t particularly care. I just want to get my crew off of this port and back home.” Julian spits on the dead mermaid, his saliva dripping down the cold cheek. “Should we do anything with the body.”

“Well if you won’t show the idiots here I’ll be happy to, maybe they’ll try actually giving us some sort of reward for solving all of their problems.” Lucio grins, tying the crown to his belt and dragging the mermaid out of the dinghy. “Coming along?”

Julian holds up his hands, shaking his head.    
“Got a crew to organize, I want to get of this stinking shore,” He runs a hand back through his hair, “I’m sick of being on this shore, would rather be-- and he’s already gone. Lovely. No love of a dramatic climax then.” He puts his hands on his hips and rolls his eyes as Lucio heads up the beach, a posse of villagers and mercenaries coming to meet him as he drags the mermaid up. Julian could practically hear the exclamations of joy from there.   
With a sigh he heads for his ship, there’s no need to be somewhere he claimed he wouldn’t be.

When the commotion starts, Eos picks her head up from her designated vomit from nervousness bucket and looks out the window. What she sees causes her heart to practically leap out of her chest. She clenches her jaw.   
This had to be part of their plan, what she saw couldn’t be the real thing.

The face was massacred, but she could tell who that mermaid was, or looked like. She clutches the doorknob of the door next to her. Ready to rush out at any moment if what she saw was real. She couldn’t hear what he was saying but the look on his face and the way he waved his sword around spoke wonders.

There was a glint of light and Eos presses her nose against the glass to get a better look.   
There was the crown she’d made, that part had gone well at least.

When he raises the sword up and swings it down at the neck of the mermaid, she flinches and squeezes her eyes shut. The village screams and cheers, she clamps her hands over her ears to block it out. She wouldn’t look, if she didn’t look then it never actually happened. 

But she opens her eyes again anyway, the Asra-esque head rollS across the ground and a man from the village kicks it. Lucio keeps his foot on the corpse, sword dripping with blood raised in the air.    
He loved red. She could tell that much.

She ducks away from the window, feeling sick to her stomach again.   
“What is  _ wrong  _ with me,” She murmurs, pulling the bucket towards her as she sinks to the ground. “I’ve never reacted like this to something before.”    
It has to be nervousness, but she’s never been a queasy nervous person.   
Food poisoning then.   
Something reasonable like that. 

She brought her knees up to her chest, she could only wait for Asra to come home once Lucio was gone.   
She reached up, grabbing her ink, her quill, and a piece of parchment from her desk.    
She needed to write Nadia a new letter, detailing these new events.    
And to see if Nadia thought she was insane.

‘ _ Dear Nadia, _

_ As you might be aware upon seeing this letter, things have no gone as badly (hopefully) as I thought. _ _   
_ _ I shall detail these events shortly, but first. _ _   
_ _ Please do not think I am mad.  _

_ As I said in my previous letter, I was under the assumption that soon a representative from my family would come for me. I was correct. Someone did come, and I got away for a little while. _ _   
_ _ The following events are as confusing as they are outlandish. _ _   
_ _ Asra showed up. _

_ Which, you’d think, for a merfolk would be awfully hard, but he has claimed that he obtained some spell that allowed him to become human. _ _   
_ _ (More on this in a bit, I am questioning it like you probably are.) _ _   
_ _ Regardless, here he was on land with legs. He pretended we were engaged, as my family would not take me back if I were to be marry or about to be married to someone who was not of our ‘calibre’.  _ _   
_ _ I also electrocuted the man but that I believe has done little but aggravate him. I’ve no doubt he will return to Firent and my father will direct him further, but so long as this lie of engagement keeps up and we both remain alive then hopefully my father will merely regard me with disgust and officially or not disown me. _ _   
_ _ If we are fortunate, perhaps Hyperion will also be causing chaos and be an option for him. _

_ From there I thought things would be alright, Asra was alive, he kissed me, Jayesh (the retainer sent to collect me (RE: Major asshole)) was unconscious. Life was good. _ _   
_ _ Julian, the captain from earlier, saw Asra and I. So on and on, things were frightening but then we all discovered we had a mutual hatred for Lucio and decided we would bond over trying to be rid of him. _

_ So we have, hopefully. _ _   
_ _ He has been looking for an artefact, as you know, so we made a replica after stealing his journals. _ _   
_ _ He has received it now as I write to you. _

_ Nadia, if this doesn’t go well then I will surely have to murder the man myself. _

_ Please tell me something of Vesuvia, I am sorely desperate for any sort of  _ normal  _ news. _

_ P.s. Might be pregnant. _

_ Sincerely, _ _   
_ _ Your panicked friend, _

_ Eosphorus Dogmatikó, _ _   
_ _ The glass smith. _

“Nadia is going to kill me,” Eos says when she finishes the letter. “She really is. She’s going to think I’m insane and come kill me with her own two hands.”   
She’s long finished the letter by the time a knock at the door sounds, it’s dusk and she’s  _ still  _ waiting. Desperate for news she’s over to the door in almost no time at all. Hesitating just before she touches the door knob.

She prays quickly before opening the door and when she does she is immediately wrapped up in strong arms with lips on her own. She wraps her arms around Asra’s neck, legs around his waist. He steps forward into the cabin, door kicked shut.    
He kisses her, again and again and he is shaking at the knees. As though he is in pain but he won’t sit down.

“Are you okay?” She asks, hand moving to the side of his face. Cupping his cheek, her thumb brushing over his cheekbone. “Do you need to sit down?” He shakes his head, thumbs pressings pressing into her thighs. He kisses her again, but apparently concedes and places her on the bed, hand to her back to lower her carefully, and climbs over her. He buries his face into her neck, holding her close to him. 

“I love you,” He says against her neck, lips brushing against her skin. His hand tight at her thigh. She takes his face in her hands, guiding him away from her neck and kisses him. Soft, chase.

“I love you too,” She kisses him again, all teeth and tongue. The taste of his mouth, though it tasted just like mouth, was everything she wanted right then. She lifts her hips up against him, rolling in slow movements. He’s quick to snap his own against her. She’s still in her nightgown, and this time he wastes not a second in pulling it off of her. Nor does he give her the option of forgetting this, his teeth nipping at her collarbones and breasts. Sucking to leave marks. His hips pressing hard against her, grinding slow and she can’t help but grin when he grows hard against her. 

“You’re eager,” She pulls at his shirt, unbuttoning his shirt and pushing it down his shoulders. Hands gliding back along his shoulders, fingertips detouring at his collarbones.

“If you saw yourself you would be too,” He murmurs and sits back to unbutton his pants, Eos leaning up to help him push them down. Spending more time feeling his thighs and lightly flicking at the white hair above his cock than actually helping him undress. She shifted, getting onto her knees, hands to his hips. Nails digging into his skin as she kissed his neck. Teeth grazing against his skin as she moved down. If he was going to give her hickeys, then he had better expect the same treatment. 

“Are you sure,” She says between kisses to his chest, “That, that’s the only reason?” 

“I’d list every reason but that’d waste time,” He sighs softly, hand gripping the hair at the back of her head. She licked her lips when he tugged at her hair, looking up at him through her eyelashes. He pulls her head back and kisses her, the tugging making her moan into his mouth.

She grabs his cock, grip light as she rubs her thumb over the head. When she starts to stroke his cock he grips her hip, fingers digging in hard and she  _ loves  _ it. She keeps her movements slow at first, hips rolling in time with her hand. His hand glides down to her ass, keeping her close with each roll of her hips and stroke of her hand.

He gasps every so often, moaning into her neck. He pushes her down eventually. Taking the hand around his cock and pins it above her head. His hand slowly glides down her arm, grinning when she spasms once he reaches her underarm but keeps going. His hand moves down the side of her breast, her ribs and to her hips. Lifting her hips up and with his other hand guides the tip of his cock to her pussy. He pushes in slowly, keeping his eyes on her face for the slightest sign of discomfort. He keeps going, slow, until he’s pressed fully against her.

She’s brought her hands down by then, reaching to wrap her arms around his neck. He has other ideas, grabbing her wrists in one hand and holding them against the bed while he slowly rocks his hips into her. She doesn’t take her eyes off of him, biting her lip hard when he starts to get rougher with her. The cabin filled with grunts and moaning, the slap of skin to skin. 

He leans down, biting her shoulder while she arcs up against him. His tight on her wrists getting tighter and tighter.   
“ _ Asra, _ ” Eos moans in his ear, grinning when his reaction is to bite her harder, she moans it again and again.    
She grits her teeth soon enough, legs tightening around him as she got closer to cumming. Arms starting to tense and strain a bit against Asra’s grip. She says his name again, warning perhaps and he doesn’t falter in his pace. He kisses at her neck and jaw instead, mouth covering hers in a kiss when she tightens around him and cums. Swallowing her cries. He cums soon after, spilling into her again. White dripping out of her when he pulls out and wraps his arms around her, hands stroking her hair. 

She cuddles up to him, tucking her head under his chin.    
He says something to her but she can only murmur nonsense at him in response before she falls asleep.

Eos wakes up later during the night, sick to her stomach. She untangles herself from Asra to go to her designated vomit bucket, washing her mouth out repeatedly when she’s done. There’s a procession, though attempting to be quiet, she still hears them.   
She doesn’t know why, but something feels off.

She glances out the window, curtains pulled back the slightest bit to allow her sight.   
It’s Lucio, his whole band of mercenaries and a man from the village. It’s dark, and she can’t make out their features but she’s still suspicious.

Asra murmurs her name and she leaves the window alone. Her curiosity by no means satiated, but she isn’t going to find answers with Asra sleeping.

The next time she is woken up it is with loud knocking at the door. She pulls away from Asra with a sigh, pulling her discarded nightgown on before answering the door, rubbing at her eyes. She hears two voices on the other side of the door, Julian’s is clear to distinguish, his accent hardly befitting the area. The other sounded nervous, almost, timid perhaps. She opens the door, a man from the village jumping at the sudden movement. The first thing she notes is that he looks a little sweaty. And is definitely nervous for some reason.

It’s going to be a long day.

“Eos! Ah- We appear to be interrupting something,” Julian says a faint red on his cheeks as Asra comes up behind her, arms wrapping around her waist. She reaches a hand back to make sure he’s wearing pants.

“Oh- C’mon, man!” She says, whacking Asra with the back of her hand and pushing him back towards her bedroom. “The door is open, go put some pants on,” She steps outside, closing the door behind her and crosses her arms. “You wanted to talk?” 

“Ah, es but I can wait until this man here is done, it’s something private,” Julian raises his eyebrows at her and she nods. Something involving Asra or Lucio then, excellent. She turns to the villager, not quite registering what she sees before it happens.

Eos heard the gunshot. But didn’t realise what it hit until she looked down. She saw Julian’s horrified face as he rushes forward to catch her before she falls, the gunshot echoes in her ears. She sees the gun fall from the villager’s hands, they’re shaking and she doesn’t realise that they  _ shot  _ her until they speak.

“I’m so sorry,” they squeak out, hands held up in the air “He told me to do it, he told me to do it.” There is blood on her hands, coming from the wound in her stomach. She drops to her knees, the door opens behind her and Asra is there all of the sudden. He kneels behind her, he’s saying something but she isn’t listening. Too focused on her own blood. She doesn’t react how she thought she might if she ever got shot. She used to think that she might freak out, go into a rage and scream. But she just sits there on her knees. She’s not even angry. Asra says something again, trying to get her to respond. She blinks. Julian presses his hand to her stomach, trying to stop the flow of blood. 

“He made me do it, I swear, he said you- he said you’re plottin’ to bring us down, he--” The villager keeps babbling on but Eos just shakes her head.

“Oh,” She whispers, vision starting to darken. She falls and Asra shouts out her name.

.

She is sitting under one of the trees in her family’s apple orchard. Hyperion is practicing his archery, shooting apples in the trees. He’d get in trouble for it later, but neither of them were going to mention that. 

He swears when he overshoots, the arrow sailing into a branch rather than the fruit. The impact into the wood sends the doves resting in the branches to scatter and fly off. 

“That’s the ninth one, Hyperion,” She says not looking up from her book. The day is warm, a summer sun beaming down upon the world. They’ll be called in for dinner in a few hours, but for once they have the day to themselves. No guards to escort them around their own grounds, just pure privacy. 

“It’s this bow, there’s something wrong with it,” He complains, tossing it to the ground and picking up a few of his stray arrows and the apples that had come off the tree. He tosses one to Eos as he sits down, biting into his own with a satisfying crunch. 

“Then use your old one, that’s why you brought it right?” She carefully folds a corner of the page she’s reading and closes her book. Placing it down on her lap, holding onto her apple with one hand and pushing his old bow towards him. 

“Yeah, but father wants me to use the short one for when we go hunting, I can’t use the longbow on a horse.” He huffs and picks up the bow anyway, it is beautiful. A gift from a distant cousin when they had been invited to the twin’s birthday. The bow was engraved with vines and leaves. It was Hyperion’s favourite gift. 

“You know just as well as I that he won’t take you,” Eos says before she bites her apple. It is sweet, and some juice runs down her chin. She wipes it off with the neckline of her peplos. “He’ll come up with some excuse like he always does, you should just use the longbow.” 

“You don’t have to rub it in you know,” He groans and takes another bite of the apple before tossing the apple away and stands up, long bow in hand. 

He pauses for a moment, looking at the longbow and then at Eos. A sly grin spreads over his face.

“Want to see if I can shoot that apple off of your head?” He asks, already getting the arrow ready. She gives him a look, like he was being insane.

“You’re crazy, you’ll hit me!” 

“No I won’t!” He scoffs. The light catches his dark hair, casting a dark halo around him. “I did it with Jayesh, he didn’t get hurt! Come on, just put it on your head.” 

“He probably moved,” She grumbles and puts the apple on her head regardless. She hugs her book to her chest and waits for Hyperion to release the arrow. 

“Hold still,” Hyperion closes one eye, aiming, then releases the arrow. She barely has time to gasp before it sinks into her throat.   
In reality, he had made the shot, and startled her into another of her coughing fits. But every time she dreamed about it afterwards he always shot her in the throat, always speaking with someone else’s voice. Her mother’s, father’s, someone else’s voice.

But it’s just his voice this time and he is screaming.   
Then the world is dark.

.

When she woke up it is to pain in her abdomen and harsh whispering not too far from her.

“We can’t just let him get away with  _ shooting  _ her!”    
“There’s nothing we can really do, I’ll take him to Prakra and say he’s been judged but I can’t just kill him.”   
“Accidents  _ happen _ .”   
“Not on my  _ ship _ , Asra.” 

She doesn’t have the awareness to roll her eyes yet, so she sits up despite the stabbing pain in her stomach. She’s back in her bedroom, which is nice. She likes her room, very comfortable bed. She looks down, she has a different night gown on, and she can feel the bandages around her waist.    
Well, while she’d love to use  _ magic  _ to solve that problem immediately she has more pressing concerns.   
Like the fact she is in so much pain and can’t focus on any spell let alone one she’s not well versed in.

“Asra?” She leans against the headboard of the bed, uncomfortable no matter what position she’s in. “I can hear you from over here who are you trying to murder?” 

He doesn’t answer right away but does hurry to her, sitting on the edge of the bed, he takes one of her hands as though holding it will give him some sort of answer. 

“The-” He huffs, expression as cold as a harsh winter. He looked positively murderous, befitting. “I can’t just forgive someone for hurting you.”   
He’d made the deal he had to protect her, and he hadn’t even been able to manage that.

“I mean I don’t expect you to but I also don’t expect you to get arrested for attempted murder,” She shifts again, hissing in pain. In a spur of the moment decision she brings Asra’s hand to where the wound was over the nightgown, forcing her magic through her hand and to her wound. Using him, his desire for her safety, as a focus for the magic rather than concentrating on the intent herself. Understanding in an instant his other hand runs over her head, bringing her forehead to his shoulder as the wound slowly knits itself together.

“Wait, what are you two doing--” Julian says, stepping towards them but backing off once he sees the glow of magic.

This process is inadvisable of course, as unlike a spell with  _ intent  _ it isn’t seamless, and tends to be painful. She shakes against him, jaw clenched as hard as she can to keep herself from crying out. She’s been shot, she’s been vomiting out of fear, and she’s freaked out enough at wounds and death already. She will  _ not  _ cry for this. 

She tilts her head slightly, eyeing the choker right next to her head. Those are definitely symbols that at least have the same origin as the ones from Lucio’s journal.   
So what  _ was  _ the choker? 

When the spell finishes she slumps against Asra, exhausted from the exertion but nowhere near willing to go back to sleep. She props her chin on his shoulder, looking at Julian. 

“So, where’d you put him?” She asks, clearly referring to the villager they’d been discussing earlier. “Does… Anyone else know what happened?” If the rest of the village knows, she wants to know how many were in on the entire thing.    
If the village knows, and they’re not the ones holding him. She’s not going to be happy.

“Oh, they know. Were hardly happy either once they realised what happened. They’d got him locked up in their town hall for now.” Julian crosses his arms over his chest. He looks troubled, or at least annoyed. 

She’s not doubt there’s one person who is the leading cause behind these issues at the moment, Lucio.

“And Lucio?”

“Gone,” Asra says, pulling away from her but shifting to put his arms around her shoulders instead. “He left during the night, his group has gone with him. Far as we know he told the asshole to do it before he left, then fled to avoid getting blamed when it got traced back to him,” He closes his eyes for a moment, the cold look not leaving his face. 

“I almost wish he’d stayed, so I can kick him into the dirt for this bullshit, any idea where he went?” She shakes her head and leans against Asra. “This is not--” She lurches forward, phantom pain shooting through where her wound was. She’s going to throw up again. 

Julian’s quick to pick up her bucket from where she’d washed it out the other night, handing it over to her before she vomits into it. Asra rubs her back in circles while she spits in the bucket, both of them glancing at each other over the top of her bowed over head.

“How… long have you been vomiting?” Julian asks cautiously, sitting down on the bed.

“Already told him don’t try to be sneaky,” She wipes her mouth with a towel besides the bed, not looking at either of them.

“I wasn’t--” Eos rolls her eyes and huffs out a breath of laughter, Julian’s cheeks go red. He was. She runs a hand through her hair, pursing her lips when she feels how knotty it is and reaches for her hair brush. Julian is  _ still  _ looking at her with a completely unreadable face. 

“What? It’s nothing.” She shrugs slightly, starting to work on the knots in her hair.

“You do realise there could be  _ complications _ ?”

“I don’t understand, could there be something bad going on?” Asra asks, looking from Eos to Julian and back again. He takes the brush from her and works at the back of her hair, her hands working at the front.    
Eos glares daggers at Julian.

“No, no, don’t worry,” Julian says, raising his hands in surrender. Eos clearly wasn’t up for the discussion, or mere idea of it. Judging by the glare she was aiming at him. “She’s fine, I’d better go. Prepare that man for transport to Prakra, I’ll send word if he says anything of Lucio’s whereabouts-- as I’m sure Eos wants to do  _ something _ to him for this. Take care of yourselves.”

“Thank you, Julian,” Eos smiles at him, holding her hand out for him to shake. He grins at her, gripping her hand firm.

“It was a pleasure, darling.” 

Within the next few weeks the phantom pain subsides, Eos’ pregnancy bump becomes more pronounced and there’s no word from Julian about any of Lucio’s plans or where he could be. It’s as though he disappeared off of the face of the earth.

It makes her nervous, other times smug. Lucio either hasn’t realised the artefact is fake, or he has and he’s biding his time and figuring out who tricked him.   
Of course, naturally he’d think of Julian. As the only other person who saw it.   
Or her, as the only person he might know works with glass in the village and who has outright shown she doesn’t like him. 

She refuses to show any sort of hesitation or concern.    
Not that she doesn’t have any.

The night is freezing, and Asra is gone again in the morning, but it doesn’t feel as bad as it used to. He left the bucket beside the bed for her, and incense to relax her lungs near her mirror. Eos gets off the bed, legs still tender, and makes her way to the mirror to pick up the incense. She knows full well she’ll probably need to use it at some point today.

While she’s at the mirror she looks over the extent of her injuries in the daylight. The cuts on her neck are fine, healing nicely and the bandages on her legs are eye catching to say the least. She turns, and lifts up the nightgown to get a better idea of how far the interesting cuts went up her legs.    
She’s not nervous until she notices her stomach.

She runs a hand over it, pressing her fingers against the flesh. It was hard, an odd feeling. She swallows, and pushes the nightgown back down roughly. Grabbing the incense and sitting back down on her bed.   
The timeline doesn’t entirely make sense , she should’ve begun showing in maybe a month or so not  _ now _ .

“Is it because he’s…?” She clutches the incense to her chest. There will be complications, there’s, by no means, supposed to be any sort of friendly relationship between merfolk and humans let alone ones of a sexual nature. Thus there were no references for pregnancy of a combined nature, or  _ children  _ of that combined nature.

Besides, the last person with any sort of medical training left on a ship. She couldn’t trust anyone from the village on it.

She couldn’t have them here.

“ _ Fuck _ me,” She mutters, coughing into her arm. Rubbing her thumb and finger together until they set alight. She lit the incense in her hand and placed it in a clay bowl. Bending her head over the smoking bundle of herbs and various other things. “At least I’ll be a complete scandal if father ever hears.”    
Eos could only imagine what  _ Hyperion  _ would say if he knew.    
She wraps her arms around herself. Nadia doesn’t even really believe her, Julian is on the water or in Prakra, she only really has Asra.    
She had to figure out what she was going to do.

She had plenty of time to think on it, with Asra out in the ocean for just over a week and she keeping to her cabin while her legs healed. 

She pulls out maps in that time, writes down towns and places close to the ocean if not directly on the shore.   
She focuses on Vesuvia, it would be nice to go back. To see Nadia…   
‘ _ Nadia wouldn’t get it _ ,’ Eos reasons to herself as she continues to pour over maps, ‘ _ It’d be dangerous for Asra, for…  _ them  _ too _ .’ Yet she has a home there waiting,  _ money  _ there. Perhaps she could arrange for a house to be built outside of Vesuvia, and spend her time there.

She’d miss  _ people  _ but safety was important. She slides a hand over her stomach, feeling that barely showing firmness there. She had to protect what her decisions brought here, because no one else would.   
If they, or she, even survived any of this.    
She still has to bring this up with Asra, still has to come to a  _ complete  _ plan with him. Without him around, she was just panicking and trying to obtain some idea of what to do.

She admits that.

So she keeps at it, writes down her list and thinks of what she could do if things go sour.   
Like if Asra doesn’t want the children when they’re born, and how she’s supposed to resolve that.   
Or if he doesn’t want her when they’re born.   
She grits her teeth at that thought. She knows it’s ridiculous, but her paranoia with lack of Lucio news and her own insecurity and uncertainty in the face of what would possibly be a  _ monsterous  _ pregnancy was getting to her. 

Within the next few days Asra comes back. When he enters the cabin he picks her up and swings her around, he seems  _ happy  _ and Eos almost doesn’t want to mention her worries in case it ruins that. 

He kisses her face, and she  _ has  _ to tell him.

“How were you while I was gone?” He asks, actually looking around the cabin. At the maps on the table and how she’d had some frenzy of repairing clothes while he was gone. “Eos, did something happen?”    
He wonders if she wants to leave.   
Whether she wants him to go with her. 

“I’m--” She breathes out hard, she needs to calm herself before she says anything. Otherwise she’ll get mad at herself. “I’m scared. Lucio has to, at some point, realise that what he has is a fake. And,” She runs a hand through her hair, pulling sharply at the strands. “I’m worried about what happens when,” She doesn’t want to say it. She’s  _ uncomfortable  _ with it. “When the- when our children are born, if they look the slightest bit inhumane then the people here. They’ll realise what you are, and what they are, they’ll hurt them.” 

“Eos,” Asra says, wrapping his arms around her, tucking her head into his shoulder. His stomach twists. He hadn’t even  _ thought  _ of that, and Eos had been likely the entire time he’d been gone. Explaining her almost obsessive mess of maps and pieces of paper. “It’ll be okay.” He says, a bit lamely. He had no true reassurances to offer, he had no idea what the future held.

“We can’t just  _ say  _ that. We can’t trust anyone else to be there during labor because for all we know they’ll kill them if they have any non-human traits, and if Lucio finds out we tricked him at any point now its their lives at risk as well. Not just our own,” She digs her fingers into him, clutching him like a lifeline. “We can’t stay here, not for long.” 

“Then we’ll leave, it doesn’t need to be bigger than it is, love,” She whacks his back, “Point taken. We’ll go somewhere else, Eos, outside of a town. No one needs to know that they’re half human if they look human enough. If they have a mix of features we’ll teach them magic as they get older and they can be with your people if they desire. If they don’t, they can be with us and mine. There’s nothing wrong with them not being human, Eos.” 

Eos sighs, releasing her death grip on him to Asra’s relief. She nods, pulling back from his hug and taking a deep breath. She just needs to relax.

“We’ll need a place to stay.”

“We’ll make one. Or get one made. I don’t know how to build houses.”

“That’s why I’m here, love.”

“Very bold to assume I’m going to let you do any physical labo-- _ Ouch. _ ”

“Bitch.”

She’s settled down after that, and within the week they pour over maps together. Settling on a small place near Vesuvia, called Nopal, to go to. It couldn’t be hard to find some place distant from the rest of the village, and the proximity to Vesuvia was a bonus for her.    
Of course, that didn’t mean it was the most ideal location. They thought about the top of a mountain before remembering Eos’ lung sickness. 

Nopal is warm, and the only place just outside of it is rundown. In desperate need of repairs, despite Asra’s protests Eos almost immediately gets to work on fixing it up. Using a combination of her magic, Asra’s magic, and actually physically working on the house, it becomes liveable. Eos uses her magic to make a channel between the yard and the ocean. It’s free real estate for Faust, and potential fish children. 

It takes a few months, but it becomes a home.    
“I have decided,” Eos says, sitting at their new kitchen table, fingers steepled, “That we should Lucio ever become a problem again: We find Lucio, kill him, and then our problems are solved.” She tilts her fingers towards Asra. “Thoughts?”

“I don’t think that the law enforcement in Vesuvia is going to like that.”

“Then we don’t get caught, simple.”

“That’s-- that’s literally not even that simple, you panicked so much over where to live and how we were going to live in this house and you’re just so relaxed with  _ murder _ ?” He stares at her, not quite sure if he’s believing what she’s saying. 

“Murder is easy, it’s problems that persist over a long period of time that’re worryingly complicated,” She shrugs, placing her hands on the table between them. “So, we don’t murder him, then what? Frame him for a crime and have him imprisoned for--”

“Let’s think less on committing actual crimes and more on other constructive solutions.”

“I’m just saying, why don’t we just disappear this little hypothetical problem? There’s no law against people running off on their own and disappearing. And no one ever hears from them again.”

“Eos…”

“We need peace of mind but we’re definitely not gonna need a corpse.”

“I am trying very hard to both not laugh and to not report you immediately to the guard, Eos, I am trying so hard.” She laughs, it relaxes him not one bit. He shakes his head, shoulders shaking slightly as he tries to keep himself from laughing with her.

“Okay, okay. But, I’m definitely going to bring it all up again if it ever pops up,” She stands up from the table, hand on her protruding abdomen as she headed for a shelf. Pulling down glass balls and other objects. There was a storm on the horizon, she wanted to be prepared.

“What are you doing?” Asra asks, getting up from the table himself but just standing there. He looked concerned.

“What do you mean? There’s a storm coming, if I’m going to spend the rest of this pregnancy landlocked then I’m going to enjoy this while I can.”

“It’ll be a short two years, besides what if something happens to you out--”

“Sorry,  _ what _ ?” Upon hearing ‘years’ Eos immediately drops the glass ball in her hands. It shatters upon impact with the ground, but she doesn’t appear to notice. Just stares at Asra, something akin to horror dawning on her face.

“Is… something wrong?” He asks, moving over to begin picking up the larger pieces of glass. 

“ _ Two years _ , Asra?” She was hesitant for nine months, but,  _ two  _ years? She wasn’t sure if her body could survive that. It wasn’t built for something so prolonged, and she had her own health issues.   
Best she could do was pray that her children would survive it, if not them both. 

“Yes…?” He puts the glass on the table, the rest swept up with magic and put into the same pile. “Is that unusual?” 

“Asra, the human incubation period for children is like nine months tops.”

Asra was wrong.    
It was a very long one and a quarter years. 

Eos had no doubt there’d be some permanent damage to her once it was said and done, but there was little she could do about it after the fact.    
She gave birth in the night, half tempted to tear into her own stomach to get the children out before she lost her mind. 

The first child was what she had hoped wouldn’t happen. A child that was more mermaid than human. For all of Asra’s reassurances throughout, she’d still feared it. The persecution, the risk. When they cried for her, despite the ongoing pain, the promise of  _ more _ , that would’ve turn her off of it, she clutched them to her chest and sobbed as the next came.    
The next looked as human as Eos did, lungs of both so far as healthy as Asra’s. Their cries loud, angry sounding. Asra begins to rise from the water between her legs, but she shakes her head. There is another, she can feel them. 

The moon is high in the sky when their third child is born. A mixed bag of traits from them both had been given to them.

Be it out of relief or fear for the future, Eos cries and holds her children with Asra. By the time the sun rises, their children will be hidden away and no one will see them for a very long time. For fear of exposure, of being hunted. Their backs turned on the rest of the world that lies beyond their idyllic home by the beach.

Eos’ happy ending will always have a shadow of paranoia.

**Author's Note:**

> im going to be honest  
> i didnt draft this  
> i didnt read it even once after i finished it  
> and i dont care if its good or bad because i had fun with it


End file.
